Originally Posted by
Fr8DogDan
Sky, I disagree with your theory. While I understand that in the early 90's, most regionals did have their pilots pay for training and I agree that wasn't the way to go, but it had to start somewhere. Since then things have changed around and you don't pay for training, at least a high percentage of the companies. I know a pilot who did not feel pay for training was the way to go and he began hauling checks. He worked his way up and at last was a captain for a regional and he didn't have to sell his soul to do it. Just hard work. As far as faslifying log books, which is what I took from the fasifying experience statement, either they have been caught or will be. It'll catch them.
Pay to play will come back. Parker pen pilots will also stage a return. During times like these desperation will make people do all kinds of things. If a guy is an unemployed low time pilot who is going nowhere anyway then what have they got to lose?
The last 4 years or so were unusually good ones. Pilots were able to advance at a pace that did not pressure them to take a logbook risk. Now that things are slowing down to a crawl people will have to sit on the sidelines watching their dream die slowly. Eventually the pressure to succeed will inspire the pen and some companies to sell their jobs.
A new situation could be that regional airlines will be expected to raise their minimums in reaction to the Colgan crash. Who will take the lower rung jobs? How will pilots in the future get multi-engine flight times to meet the higher minimums? It could all lead to a new parker pen culture and even the airlines will not look to closely at the logbooks of applicants.
Skyhigh