Originally Posted by
minimwage4
If they raise the mins indefinitely, not by supply and demand, then they would have to raise benefits, salaries. It will never happen. It's easier to lower mins because they know the golden rule: "will fly for food" How do you know that even 2500 hour pilots won't go out of their ways to stab other in their back for a job as much as a 200 hour pilot would?
If pilots fought for increased experience requirements, we would be taking control of the role we should have in supply and demand. We would be the producer of our labor, controlling the supply of what we are producing, just as it should be. This is opposed to what is happening now, where management can lower mins to dangerously low levels, to influence the supply and demand curve to their liking. The supply of 1000-2000 hour pilots will always be less than 250 hour pilots, just by the very nature of what it takes to attain 1000-2000 hours. Those number of hours are only attained in very limited ways, such as flight instruction, or flying Part 135. People can buy their way to 250 hours, no problem. But, they probably can't buy their way to 1000-2000 hours; not very easily, at least. With increased experience requirements, supply would be limited by a number of factors, such as the fact that there are only so many Part 135 jobs out there, and the fact that a flight school can't have 50 flight instructors on line, when there are only 3 new students coming in the door daily. Plus, if there were a glut of instructors, it would only take longer for them to reach 1000-2000 hours. Increasing barriers to entry would automatically limit supply, automatically increase wages, and increase safety, in my opinion. I have never flown with a 250 hour pilot who was competent-enough to fly Part 121. Their knowledge may have been up to par, but overall aircraft control and situational awareness were not where they should have been for an airline pilot. By the way, I was the one of the highest time people in my airline class, lest one think I'm being hypocritical. I could have easily got in with 1/2 the flight time, and probably even 1/3. It's time to grab this bull by the nuts, and make something happen. I've been in the process of writing every senator and representative I can, telling him or her what I think about 250 hour minimum experience requirements; especially how I believe it negatively affects the safety of passengers and crew.