Woo-Hoo! I'll move up 310 numbers by the time I retire in 11 years!! Maybe I can hold a nice 3-day trip by then.

Take heart, Flyby. From the looks of some of our pilots, about a third won't live to be age 65 much less hold a medical until then. Others will retire earlier than age 65; even sooner if the medical insurance issue is fixed.

When both the economy was booming and the legacies were hiring, we lost 30 pilots a month due to attrition. It dropped to 15/month when the airlines stopped hiring and 7/month when the economy dumped in the fall of 2008. While I doubt the legacies will be hiring in the next 5 years, eventually they will do so. The economy should pick up either later this year or early the next so our attrition levels of pilots who've had their fill of the airline bidness will pick up too.