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05-27-2009 | 09:50 AM

#28

Adlerdriver

Gets Weekends Off

Joined: Jul 2007

Posts: 4,064

Likes: 37

From: 767 Captain

Quote:

Originally Posted by kersplatt

I'm not saying lowering the mins it is a good idea, I think it is very likely if there is a pilot shortage. Everyone wants to think salaries will go up if there is a shortage. My point is that it won't, the airlines will find a way to get pilots cheap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kersplatt

Not all majors require 1000 PIC. I don't think Delta does/did. I am also pretty sure Continental doesn't either.

ATP is a nice requirement but I don't think it improves safety. The Colgan crash had 2 ATP pilots or at least the FO met the requirements to have one. She was even hired close to ATP mins and had twice the hours the average pilot had when hired at Colgan during that time period.

You really think there's going to be a shortage of 1000 hour PIC candidates for major airline jobs if/when they start hiring again? When has that ever happened? What an airline sets for its hiring mins and who it actually hires are not necessarily related. I'll bet if you looked at the new hires at Delta and Continental (if they don't have a PIC min), you'd see that many still had lots of PIC turbine time even if it wasn't required.

If you're saying regional carrier may lower their mins because all their Captains leave, I suppose that's possible. Aren't they already down at the 250 level for many? (I don't know - asking.) I'd say hiring mins will be under the microscope for a while thanks to BUF/Colgan, so lowering may not happen. I'd agree that mins are likely to go up before salaries go up.

ATP itself doesn't necessarily improve safety but it sets a min experience level for entry into the airline biz. Hopefully the hours gained in order to get an ATP were worthwhile and actually provided some valuable experience that does more than just look good on paper. An intangible is that obviously all experience is subjective and some flying hours do not equal others. Compare a 200 hour wonder with his peer hired 1 year earlier into the same RJ. If he flew his butt off, let’s say he's almost got 1000 more hours now in the right seat of an RJ than the new hire wonder. Big deal. Is he that much more experienced? He just spent a year flying from A to B with the autopilot on probably 80% of the time. Not that impressive in my book. That's why we have interviews and a subjective evaluation of a pilot's experience, but the minimums have to be set somewhere.

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