sandrich

I'm a graduating senior at Florida Tech. Have my CMEL and returning home to NY to get my CFI and II and instruct for a year or so. If I enjoy it, I can see myself doing it for a little longer than that. My goal is not exactly to get into the airline, just something where i'm paid to do some flying that I enjoy (after all, thats why we all become pilots right?) My plans is to build my hours in excess of 1000, (which will probably take me about 2 years I hope) and then see where the industry is at. All of the professors at school are saying that we are in a great spot, the industry will be prime in a few years when we are ready, yada yada yada. Poking through these forums, I see a lot of miserable people putting up miserable posts, but I'm also starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. I'm seeing a lot of airlines starting to hire or at least pull from the pools. I figured I would ask people that are actually out on the line, how are things looking? Am I in a good spot? Is the industry finally turning back on? Any help and advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

TonyWilliams

Anything could happen. War, finance meltdowns, airline consolidation, bk's, furlough, oil price, etc.

Are you in better shape than the kid you graduated on Sept 10, 2001 ? Or Sept 2008? Probably... until the next bad thing happens.

The retirements are huge, no doubt, but there are still THOUSANDS on furlough. And the profession overall has been bleak, and will continue to be so for awhile. Perhaps for generations.

But, it's still good for the guys that did make it. Who had the seniority to not get furloughed. Who lucked out and chose the correct airline (which changes with the wind). Will you make it there? Or will there be a there when you get there????

Nobody knows. No matter what, you'll suffer at the bottom for a long time. That's a given, no matter how the industry turns. Even if you make it to a "good" airline in 10 years, you'll be at the bottom of a seniority list hoping and praying not to get furloughed.

The odds are long, no matter what the professors (whose very livelihood centers on young, starry eyed kids showing up for their classes) say. But, are you in the "best" shape of the past decade? Maybe.

detpilot

Just keep in mind, most of the "miserable" people here once had the same hopes, dreams, and feelings about this profession that you have now. We were mostly all in your shoes at one point, so I'd advise you to avoid the constant complainers, but don't throw all the bad out that you see here as "miserable people putting up miserable posts."

Good luck with your CFI, you'll learn a lot from instructing!

Cubdriver

USBLS says the pilot vocation will grow about an average amount compared to other occupations. The thing with pilot jobs is how unstable and competitive they are. I wish they would produce empirical metrics on that.

fly768

Hi, I don't trust anyone saying the the long-term outlook is good. It's simply too difficult to predict and too many factors involved. Any bigger world-wide crisis is putting the aviation sector again in a difficult situation. Ther might be one or the other good year ahead, but I doubt that a situation like we had it in the 50s or 60s will ever return.
But it's not only aviation which faces this challenge, all other industries as well. Unless we find a replacement for oil

atpcliff

If you start flying as much as possible and get the mins to get into a regional, as long as you get you're ATP by 1 Aug, 2013, you will be in a GREAT position, barring something unusual that we can't plan for (like 911). There will be LOTS of pilots hiring and air travel will be skyrocketing, worldwide, in the next 5 years.

cliff
SYD