CodyPilot

Hello,

I am currently 27 years old and have about 300 hours flying time. I'm Almost done wrapping up my Instrument and Commercial ratings, after which I will then take a low hour pilot job doing whatever I can to get my 1,500. I have a bachelors degree in business, so only thing really between me and the majors is some ratings and flight time. I'm currently in the oil and gas field, but am changing careers because I've found office life is horrible and if I want to make over six figures then I'm looking at my job becoming my life and 60+ hour work weeks. It isn't for me.

I know this is where a lot of pilots will come in and say don't get into aviation for the money, and I am not solely doing it for this reason. That is a factor, but my Dad was a United Captain for years, and my brother is in with United Express now so I fully understand the lifestyle and career paths of pilots, and I do enjoy flying. We own a C-182 I regularly fly.

The reason for this post is I am searching for pilots opinions on the future of aviation, specifically autonomous aircrafts. My fear is that I will be 50 years old (so about 25 years from now) and replaced by autonomous aircrafts, and a pilots skill set isn't easily transferrable over into a new high paying career if this happens. My dad and brother are very dismissive to the idea because, well they don't want it to happen. Even I don't, but I have no doubts about whether this will happen in next 50 years at most, my concern is at what rate and how it will happen. One pilot in the cockpit while one monitors multiple remotely from the ground? Will this happen in 20 years or 40? I know Google and many other car companies plan to have autonomous vehicles on the road by 2025, and if you do the research you'll find that this is probably going to happen. From the rollout of cars and how much safety is improved will have affects on public perceptions of an autonomous aircraft are my thoughts.

So if there is any unbiased pilots who are more integrated into the industry than myself that have knowledge of the subject, please offer your thoughts, because at this point I'm beginning to doubt whether I should continue in to aviation or not. I want to feel as informed as possible before making a decision.

Thanks for any possible input!

rickair7777

You have nothing to worry about. Someone in Kindergarten today might possibly have their FO replaced by automation late in their career, but it will not affect you.

Use the search feature there are many discussions about this on APC. A few people are scared, but they are folks who are utterly ignorant of engineering, business, regulatory, and social issues...all of which create massive obstacles to airliner automation in the near or mid term.

Someday it will happen, but it's a long ways off.

USMCFLYR

I have no idea where this thought process comes from.

Look at the tenets of CRM and if you can't sell those skill sets into ANY industry then you are missing the boat.

CodyPilot

I agree that there are CRM skill sets that a pilot has and learns throughout his career, but I'm picturing an older me in competition for jobs within an industry where guys have 20 years experience or more. Don't want to end up selling life insurance or something else that I don't care about. Not that doing that would be bad... Know a lot of airline pilots and they're some of the smartest and most successful guys I know, and all I meant by that comment was that if I were forced into another industry at an older age there'd be a lot of other people at the top of the totem pole I'd be competing with in whatever industry that is.

tomgoodman

The good news is that human pilots will always work for less money than it would cost to replace them with robots.
That is also he bad news.

ExAstra

I don't think automatic flight control systems will replace human pilots for a while yet. It will eventually happen, without a doubt, but not within the next 20 years at least.

rickair7777

This is a legit concern. Civilian pilots who have done nothing other than flying would have a harder time starting over after middle-age.

Military folks typically have some management/organizational skills, and networks in the private sector. Career-changers can usually revert back to their previous field.

But automation is not the only threat...you're far, far more likely to medical out or have your airline go BK at age 50 than to get replaced by robots. Or catch a bad wind gust and wreck an airplane on landing. Employed one minute, unemployed and unemployable 30 seconds later.

For a civilian-track pilot, it's prudent to ALWAYS have a Plan B on the back burner. Small business, real estate license, web designer, computer programmer, CDL, whatever you'd be happy doing that would provide enough income (going to be hard to replace major airline captain pay in any case).