Young Crew profiled
 

Suddenly I'm feeling really old.


Meet the 26-year-old airline captain and her 19-year-old co-pilot - CNN.com

I was an rj captain at 24. I know people who were rj captains at 23. Big deal.

"Their employer, the British carrier Easyjet, believes McWilliams has become the world's youngest commercial airline captain"


Doubt it

I doubt it, also. No way. And a 19 year old first officer? There must be no college degree requirement.

What surprised me was the statistic of only 450 female captains, out of 130,000 airline pilots worldwide. Strikes me as ironic to hear people complaining about all those women being hired, taking their slots away.

3 words....ab initio training

Article said nothing about an RJ. It was an A320.

Article said "commercial airline pilot". RJ would qualify for that I'm sure you'd agree.

Besides, there have been UA and AA guys in the past the had to wait to upgrade because they couldn't qualify for an ATP (23 years old). This article has some facts wrong but over all not surprising a place like Easyjet would have very young pilots. I think they cycle out pretty quickly.

I had a 19 year old F/O at Ryan Air in the mid 2000's. No big deal... pitched for work, and did what they were trained to do.

Does being an 18 year old Chieftan single pilot captain count for anything?:rolleyes:

An rj button pusher is not a real captain.

I'm almost scared to hear what you think a real CA is.

Eat a ****.

No. Come back when you fly something with a heading bug.



:sarcasm:

Neither is an easyjet captain. FWIW, I went to a major from your contractor airline at 26 years old. Could have been a major airline captain at 33 years old if I would have taken first upgrade.

Not bragging, but I am saying I am not impressed by a young crew working for a fraction of what a traditional crew used to make.

How ironic. That RJ you made CA on at age 24 was during a time when RJs bloomed and mainline DC9s, 727s, 737s, MD80s were parked and allowed for your quick upgrade to happen. Curious, how many legacy pilots were on furlough when you upgraded at 24? Talk about working for a fraction of what a traditional crew used to make? Pot calling kettle black. The RJ replaced mainline planes, mainline routes, and mainline pilot jobs.

Your not blaming the RJ pilots for that are you? I believe you were one as well.

No I didn't blame the regional pilots for that. Just ironic to see the statement above he wrote about a young crew working for a fraction of what a traditional crew made.

Attachment 2951

Filler

This is what I was alluding to with my snarky comment. The last 15 years saw the loss of thousands of mainline pilot jobs that were replaced by unqualified children in a ridiculously large fleet of RJs. I'm not throwing stones from some high perch. I'm also someone the "benefited" from the explosive growth of RJs at an enourmous cost. I contributed to the outsourcing of my future career yet as a starry-eyed 20 something, I was too blind to see it. It's just nice to see the end of the RJ era. Hopefully the same mistakes won't be made.

These guys don't make any money. Who cares how old they are. They are part of the race to the bottom.

20-year-olds were flying loaded B-17's in the dark of winter in formation for 4 hours to flak-ringed German cities defended by clouds of fighters. And back to a fog-shrouded base possibly with a damaged aircraft and wounded crew.
It can be done.

Correct. He/She is a flight instructor.

Mainline pilots gave up scope in their contracts, and if mainline would hire pilots with just CFI experience then no one would want to go to a regional. You act as if people want to go to a regional carrier because it's their dream job. People go because they have to to get hired at mainline

Well in the spirit of being pedantic, that is not technically true. What you're highlighting is an economic Prisoner's dilemma, and that is a real dynamic indeed.

The US is one of very few countries that puts emphasis on having a 4 year degree commensurate with a technical trade. In Europe, your path is established early i.e.: technical school, university, trade school etc. They have a more defined path to professional positions. Not perfect, but at least you dont have to spend a $h*t tonne of money getting a degree AND your ratings!

Lufthansa, puts the pilots into ab initio after a baccalaureate in engineering.....

Agreed. I too benefit from it to start the career, but let's not forget what the RJ did especially after 9/11 in the 2002-2007 timeframe. Thousands of mainline pilots and mainline planes furloughed/parked while the RJs boomed and young pilots came into the industry for pennies on the dollar compared to the legacy standard.

Maybe the most accurate post i've ever seen.

Ab initio and Multi Crew Pilot License - so he's stuck at F.O. and for the one airline only.

That's if he was only an MPL but I concur what a suck way to be a "pilot" with no license and being at the controls..... The equivalent of a drivers permit almost.

Yeah, but they weren't faced with the perils of crew meals, tantamount to hazardous materials.:D

...and no flight attendants, which can be worse than hazmat! :D

No, all you need for abinitio is your Abitur, which one can get after just 12 years of school. No degree needed at all. Besides, Lufthansa doesn't hire anymore. Of coure there was the option to do a bachelors degree (International Degree in Aviation Systems Engineering and Management B.Eng.) on the side, it just extended the pilot training from roughly two years to four years and was an option that only a minority took.

Wrong again. After the end of the LIFUS phase, usually around 100 hours on the line, he can change employers within the whole EU (and probably other regions that do recognize the MPL). Once he gets his 1500 hours total experience, which is around 1400 on the line, he can apply for a full ATPL, just requires a normal SIM check with a few more boxes ticked.

Easyjet isn't really, at least not on all contracts. They do have regional contracts, so it depends where you are based. I only have the complete figures for the german CLA (easyjet is unionized), and that puts the captain at five years with the company on around 157k € a year (close to 177k $) and the first officer at just shy of 48k €, or slightly less than 54k$ a year.

Now, ryanair is a completely different story of course. No union representation, fake self employment with all the usual problems that brings including having to pay back taxes and fines in the high six figure region once the tax authority gets wise (which happens currently in germany).

Strike "B-17".....insert "Lancaster".....but we know what you meant....

There's a difference?? :D

The US is the only place where a college degree is considered a requirement for an airline job.

According to the AAF Statistical Digest, in less than four years (December 1941-August 1945), the US Army Air Forces lost 14,903 pilots, aircrew and assorted personnel plus 13,873 airplanes --- inside the continental United States . They were the result of 52,651 aircraft accidents (6,039 involving fatalities) in 45 months.



this suggests that the price was very high indeed to get the job done even before combat. A price to high to pay for simply money.

I wouldn't bet the family fortune on that tailwheel.

Feel free to provide me with examples of foreign airlines that DO require a degree.