Originally Posted by hyflyt560
"...total pilot population is down 26% since 1980...", "Student pilot starts are down 61% since peaking in 1961...", "...60-65% of students never get their licenses..." Phil Boyer, AOPA President.
I believe all these stats are much more indicative of General Aviation Trends. ERAU, Purude, UND and other schools are experiencing growth, and many new universities are opening aviation programs. ATP is booming. It seems to me that there are more people pursuing commercial aviation than before.
First, I tried to be explicit in saying that I'M NOT AGREEING OR DISAGREEING WITH THE TREND. I'm not saying that we deserve the pay cut we've recieved.
I do disagree with a lot of the statements that I will attempt to paraphrase: "Computerized jets are just as hard to fly as the old stuff."
I think my biggest mistake was to compare a beech 18 to a 777. I think a better comparison would be a 707 to a 777. Many of you talked about being systems managers, having to deal with malfunctions, and being overall aware decision makers. I will argue that all that applied to 707 pilots, but they didn't have a beautifully engineering computer system to help them. They didn't have big glass moving maps to let them know exactly where they were and how they were oriented. Trend lines on their gages, Computer programs to calculate optimum cruise speeds and altitudes (which many pilots still ignore), ATC with more precise radar and better training, the list goes on.
Aircraft design companies have taken a lot of the the pilot-system interaction away. In older jets the computer wasn't gonna fix anything for you. Proof: A third individual was required in the cockpit because the workload was so much higher. My step-dad told me a story where he went into the tail of an older jet and jerry-rigged the APU contacts to get it to start so that they could start both of the mains and subsequently MEL the APU. I think you'd have a tough time doing that today. When something goes wrong, there isn't a lot we can do anymore. You may run a long checklist and call dispatch, but direct pilot intervention and creativity is diminishing.
Basically, The pilots of 707s DC-8s and the like had hundreds of lives in their hands, had less reliable aircraft and flew the same routes we do today. They didn't have computers to help them with situational and system awareness.
Again I'm NOT SAYING WHETHER OR NOT WE DESERVE LESS PAY! I'M NOT SAYING WE'RE UNSKILLED. I just think the lessened amount of required skill has left us with less to bring to the bargaining table.