There is not a pilot shortage. There are 250,000 pilots in the US with at least a commercial/instrument or ATP. But many of these pilots have long chosen other professions because of the abysmal compensation and quality of life in this career.

Only very recently, some airlines have temporarily increased starting pay and bonuses to the $50k-$60k range. The results: many qualified (often middle-aged) pilots have decided to enter the career as they are now closer to being appropriately compensated. It was a pay shortage, not a pilot shortage, and increasing pay has increased the supply of willing laborers, as expected.

An attempt to retain EAS as some sort of subsidized, entry-level jobs program is misguided and distorts the labor market. Our nation is $20 trillion in debt and we can't afford to waste money like this. We are over-taxed, and it's time to cut spending. EAS is relatively minor, but it's a perfect example of wasteful, frivolous spending.

 

Let me get this straight... You want to save taxpayers money, by increasing the size of government?

 

You can't deny the fact the government is buying tickets on private airlines they are currently subsidizing.

It's kind of like paying tax on your social security money. Why not just receive a smaller tax free check or take a tax credit on other income which nets you the money at the end of the day? The government spends 39 cents for every $100 of revenue. Giving you money to later take a portion right back has a cost.

 

no one takes you seriously when you write stuff like this


There is still a shortage of supply of labor despte increased wages. Why? Because of excessive regulation. Raise mandatory retirement and lower SIC minimums and it will get the market closer to equilibrium.

I actually completely agree with this.

 

Wrong. The 1500 hour rule was nothing more than a bone that the Obama administration threw to labor unions. It is completely arbitrary and has zero bearing on anything and especially had nothing to do with Colgan.

 

The ATP rule was implemented to get pilots more exposure to aviation before stepping into the cockpit of a 121 airline. The Captain of the Colgan accident was a 200 hour wonder, then slung gear at the pay to play airline Gulfstream. He had several training failures and lacked basic airmanship skills. He had more than 1500 hours when he killed all those people in Buffalo but had he accomplished a standard stall recovery when he got the stall warning and pusher, this wouldn't even be a discussion. If he had instructed to 1500 hours or flew boxes in IFR solo or any number of low time jobs, he would have been better equipped to handle the thing you're supposed to perfect as a commercial pilot. Since regional airlines couldn't be trusted to weed out bad pilots, the government mandated the pilots they hired have more experience.

Don't be naive. The 1000/1500 hour rule going away wouldn't solve this crisis. Lowering it to 250 would only shorten the timeline of getting to a regional by 1-2 years. The only thing it did was show the cracks sooner.

 

Well, if you want to look at it that way, 250 hours is also government intervention.

By the way, there is no pilot shortage. It's a pay shortage.

 

I've been trying to wrap my head around why any professional pilot would argue in this manner and against the recently increased barriers to entry in this profession that have directly lead to massive pay increases at the lowest end of the profession... Then I noticed that you joined this community THIS MONTH. Clicking on your past posts I see that you started a post stating that you have accumulated just 460 hours of total time.

460 hours, now what?

Please allow me to suggest, in the most diplomatic terms I am able to muster, that you talk less and listen more: this community is populated by professional airline pilots who have 10, 20, 40+ times more flight time and decades more experience than you do.

Perhaps you could gain a little wisdom from our experience.

 

Exactly my point. His problem was fatigue and lack of training, not too little total time.

 

It never ceases to amaze me that people just continue to mindlessly parrot the union talking points.