Pilot Shortage
 

Just curious - "the pilot shortage" is a big topic on the regional forum. Are the fractionals having a hard time finding qualified folks?

NJA has a giant stack of resumes, even with the crappy domicile system. It is one of the best jobs in aviation, even though there are quite a few who refuse to believe that anything non 121 airline is inferior. With the majors starting to crank up the hiring I think there will be less regional pilots who want to come, but I think it will be at least a few years before there aren't enough qualified pilots for NJA to pick through. The quality of applicants will probably go down sooner than the amount of pilots who want the job, but they will all still be required to have 2500 total and an ATP. I hope the non pilots out there continue to stay away from flight schools so all of us in the pilot business can really get compensation to more acceptable levels- especially at the regionals.

rumor has it CS is already having problems filling classes

But CS can't seem to call me...

keep bothering them. they'll call you. i wrote to them once a month til they called

No. NetJets does not seem to have any problems hiring. Neither does SWA, FedEx or UPS. There is no pilot shortage, there is only a shortage of pilots willing to work for poor QOL and low wages. There are plenty of very high time/experienced pilots out of work who would love to get back in the business. But they will not do it for $20K / yr.

100%, take it to the bank, absolutely true.

In 1983 I was flying a ratty 402 for a ratty company in NM. One day I was in ABQ and this new cream yellow Beech C99 pulled up with "Mesa Airlines" painted on it. I got talking with the pilot. He said come on over we're new and we're hiring. A trade up in the airplane but a major trade down in pay, less than half. I recall I was making about 22k a year flying the 402 in 1983 - uncorrected for inflation 1983 dollars. Compare that with today's regional starting pay. Around that time I knew people flying Metro's making 50k a year - Old Air Midwest and SunAire in CA- (bought by Skywest) - both companies were making tidy sums of money too. To put it mildly; things change.

I just interviewed at NetJets last week. There were 8 of us. Everybody had more experience than me with a lot of PIC turbine time. They ranged from a military guy with 4000+ hours flying Gulfstreams internationally to regional captains with 6000+ hours to charter captains with 7500+ hours. I was extremely surprised that so many overqualified people were trying for a job that only pays $40,000/yr with an estimated 3.5 year upgrade or longer.
I definitely don't think there's a shortage of pilots trying for NetJets.

From what I've heard, NJA doesn't have a hard time hiring, they have a hard time retaining. Some of my friends there have told me that FOs are hired, get typed, and then jump ship to fly corporate, since there is no training contract.

You won't make $40,000 your first year. There's a LOT of "soft" money at NetJets.

I flew the Reserve schedule during 2006 and finished the year at $61K. (that was my first year at NetJets)

7/7 guys typically make somewhere in the $50's their first year.

I'm not sure if it's the norm, but I was in the June 07 indoc class and of the 26 people in the class, there were 6 or 7 guys over 60 years old and several retired military pilots. We probably had a dozen guys who had flown heavies including the C-5, 747, 777, 767/757, DC-8, DC-10, C-130, C-141, etc. and I would guess the average age was around 40-45. Also, prior experience didn't seem to have any bearing on what plane a person was assigned. There were former C-5 guys assigned to the Beechjet (Hawker) 400, and on the other end of the spectrum, there were guys assigned to the Sovereign who had only prop experience (me). It was truly a diverse mix of guys. NetJets doesn't seem to have any preference for flight experience other than meeting the minimums, being reasonably current, and having experience working in a crew environment. They're not lying when they say that the minimums are competitive. Just show them you want to be there and that you can take great care of the owners.