Originally Posted by
Reggie Dunlop
The regional industry is going to have a reckoning soon. It would appear that the puppy mill industry will be finished.
Looks like the days of scrapping for students at a flight school for 3-4 years then slugging around in the middle of the night in a Lance, a 99, or a metro are coming back.
Interesting if true. It's going to get much, much tougher to get the time needed to be an airline pilot. As I understand it, in the not-too-distant past time either was built in the military or ferrying checks around in the middle of the night. The former stream is much smaller and shrinking, the latter is a thing of the past.
I have to say that a pilot with 1500 hours of pattern work and stall recovery as an instructor isn't materially any more valuable to an airline than one who's done it for 500. There's only so much you can learn in a Cessna.
While at one point this would probably mean higher pilot salaries when the fabled next "pilot hiring bonanza" takes place, I think the regionals are about to shrink permanently and in a big way. 10-20 years from now this could lead to significant pilot shortages and higher wages, but nothing in the near term.
Just my .02.