Yes, another "pilot shortage" article!
07-17-2012, 06:26 AM
#2
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
My dream
I was the lowest time guy in class with 3800 hours by the time I was able to finally get hired by my first regional. A few years before I got on I was told that they were hiring 5000 hour guys. My years of misery flight instructing and flying the Alaskan bush were finally over. We all expected to work a few years for the regional then on to our dream career destination.
A year later I was teaching basic indoctrination and there was a guy sitting in class with 190 hours total time and 45 of that was in a simulator. The regional made a choice to hire low timers. Market conditions did not warrant it. High time guys were sitting in the waiting room yet no one called them in.
By then we also knew the score. We had not reached the final stretch by a long shot. People had been stuck there for a decade and little advancement had taken place. I had already spent more than a decade on my career by that point and had nothing but disappointment to show for it. I was a 30 year old man with a girl I wanted to marry and after years and years of grueling sacrifices I made less than I did as a gas station attendant and had a worse standard of living as well.
The profession owed us more. How do they expect to retain or attract experienced pilots when all they want to do is to throw a handful of peanuts at them for professional compensation? Their plan clearly was to select away from experience and the disgruntled attitude that comes with unmet expectations of having a life, and hire low timers who were completely new to everything and had very low expectations by comparison.
My peers and I made a significant investment into the profession. We should have been treated better.
Skyhigh
A year later I was teaching basic indoctrination and there was a guy sitting in class with 190 hours total time and 45 of that was in a simulator. The regional made a choice to hire low timers. Market conditions did not warrant it. High time guys were sitting in the waiting room yet no one called them in.
By then we also knew the score. We had not reached the final stretch by a long shot. People had been stuck there for a decade and little advancement had taken place. I had already spent more than a decade on my career by that point and had nothing but disappointment to show for it. I was a 30 year old man with a girl I wanted to marry and after years and years of grueling sacrifices I made less than I did as a gas station attendant and had a worse standard of living as well.
The profession owed us more. How do they expect to retain or attract experienced pilots when all they want to do is to throw a handful of peanuts at them for professional compensation? Their plan clearly was to select away from experience and the disgruntled attitude that comes with unmet expectations of having a life, and hire low timers who were completely new to everything and had very low expectations by comparison.
My peers and I made a significant investment into the profession. We should have been treated better.
Skyhigh
Last edited by SkyHigh; 07-17-2012 at 06:44 AM.
07-17-2012, 09:50 AM
#3
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: FDX MD11 Capt in MEM
Posts: 885
Originally Posted by SkyHigh
A year later I was teaching basic indoctrination and there was a guy sitting in class with 190 hours total time and 45 of that was in a simulator. Skyhigh
A brief google search indicates that it is still 250hrs.
Regards,
Clutch
Last edited by ClutchCargo; 07-17-2012 at 09:52 AM. Reason: added text
07-17-2012, 03:44 PM
#6
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Clutch
Originally Posted by ClutchCargo
Come on Sky, can you even get a Commercial-Instrument, Multi with 145 hours of actual flight time? I seem to remember 250hrs being the minimum. Of course I learned to fly when the word "glass" was usually preceeded by "martini".
A brief google search indicates that it is still 250hrs.
Regards,
Clutch
A brief google search indicates that it is still 250hrs.
Regards,
Clutch
The person in question was a big time aviation university graduate from a Part 141 school. Minimum to completion of a commercial is 190 hours of that a portion can be in a flight simulator. This person had the maximum sim time. Went straight from the commercial MEL check ride to regional ground school.
He did alright in class and training too. There were other very low timers in class too. Most had 200 to 400 hours. The 190 hour guy set the record though.
Skyhigh
07-20-2012, 09:16 AM
#7
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: FDX MD11 Capt in MEM
Posts: 885
Originally Posted by SkyHigh
Clutch,
The person in question was a big time aviation university graduate from a Part 141 school. Minimum to completion of a commercial is 190 hours of that a portion can be in a flight simulator. This person had the maximum sim time. Went straight from the commercial MEL check ride to regional ground school.
He did alright in class and training too. There were other very low timers in class too. Most had 200 to 400 hours. The 190 hour guy set the record though.
Skyhigh
The person in question was a big time aviation university graduate from a Part 141 school. Minimum to completion of a commercial is 190 hours of that a portion can be in a flight simulator. This person had the maximum sim time. Went straight from the commercial MEL check ride to regional ground school.
He did alright in class and training too. There were other very low timers in class too. Most had 200 to 400 hours. The 190 hour guy set the record though.
Skyhigh
Regards,
Clutch
07-20-2012, 10:43 AM
#9
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
In my case
Everything that I have or ever will have must come from what I alone can earn. I am not a trust fund baby. I do not have a huge inheritance to look forward to. My wife is not an orthodontist. Aside from myself I have a wife, six sons, and aging parents and in laws who are running out of options, to consider. The reality is that in life our career efforts demand a financial return that can provide for our needs.
Aviation takes a considerable investment to make happen. In return it needs to produce compensation that is worthy of that sacrifice or else it fails the rational test. No matter how much fun a thing is if you can not afford to care for yourself or for your responsibilities then you have to look elsewhere.
It is important to remember that our work life is only so long. What we can produce has to be able to support our past (student loans) our present (health insurance, mortgage and living expenses) and future (30 years of retirement and college for our children).
70K as a regional captain is not enough unless you plan to live alone in a studio apartment and spend the majority of your income first paying off student loans and then saving for a retirement that might be very long in duration and come sooner than you think.
Fun is fun but sooner or later the bill will come.
Skyhigh
Aviation takes a considerable investment to make happen. In return it needs to produce compensation that is worthy of that sacrifice or else it fails the rational test. No matter how much fun a thing is if you can not afford to care for yourself or for your responsibilities then you have to look elsewhere.
It is important to remember that our work life is only so long. What we can produce has to be able to support our past (student loans) our present (health insurance, mortgage and living expenses) and future (30 years of retirement and college for our children).
70K as a regional captain is not enough unless you plan to live alone in a studio apartment and spend the majority of your income first paying off student loans and then saving for a retirement that might be very long in duration and come sooner than you think.
Fun is fun but sooner or later the bill will come.
Skyhigh
07-20-2012, 10:49 AM
#10
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Position: FAA 'Flight Check'
Posts: 13,837
Originally Posted by SkyHigh
Aside from myself I have a wife, six sons, and aging parents and in laws who are running out of options, to consider.
USMCFLYR
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