Do not underestimate the effect that parking all the MAX’s has. That is a lot of aircraft capacity, not just current capacity but capacity planned for expansion, that is temporarily offline.

 

Maybe I’m reading you wrong, but are you saying that the guy in the right seat of an RJ in his first real paying flying job hauling people isn’t on a learning curve and gaining valuable experience? Or the guy to his left, having just crossed the 1000 hour 121 mark in his first captain job isn’t learning or gaining experience? I’d say both those guys should be drinking from a firehose (that’s a good thing).

Contrast that with a SWA 8-year FO that had 2500 hours of jet PIC time in the air force before he got his now 8000 hours at a major; you think the market is going to compensate those FOs the same? Again, I may be misreading you but professionals get compensated largely based on breadth of experience and history of demonstrated performance.

 

What is “demonstrated performance”? Either you meet ATP standards or you don’t. 5000 TPIC doesn’t mean you’re a great captain that always shows up on time and does whatever is needed to provide excellent service, it means they’ve gone 5000 hours without losing their license. Without access to performance data and such you really can’t judge whether one pilot is better or more qualified than another simply based on total time. I know plenty of 10,000 hour plus jackwagons that milk the clock and can barely land to save their life.

 

even people who become great captains are rarely there at 50 tpic.

Total time requirements screen out inexperience. That has value

 

Between 0-1000, sure. 2000-5000? Probably not.

 

Experience(d) - having gained knowledge or skill in a particular field over time.

We all come across those with innate flying talent and they are the exceptions (not me). As someone alluded to earlier, there are those few 10,000-25,000 hr plus that probably shouldn’t be in this career from the beginning. The majority lie in the middle class of hours and have garnered experience that is based on their bag of tricks they have accumulated over time. All these backgrounds (cookie-cutter or not) provide some amazing talent and stories from which we should draw from.

Flying point A-B-A-B-A, you can definitely master your universe rather quickly. Granted, things can go hairy no matter what you do. Go to point C - Now throw in over-water, language barrier, comm-out, eng fail, etc. it’s always better to be over terra firma, well maybe not if your a float plane or fly the Northern Territories, Alps, etc. Or even D flying where you are not purely scheduled runs, but at the whim of your customers hitting all the continents and in the most diverse environment. It’s not for everybody. But I must say 4, 5 or more legs a day isn’t for me so it’s a matter of perspective as well.

We move from seat to seat for a reason.
Many pilots of today haven’t experienced what the masters of decades before have with technology advancements we take for granted so when it does hit the fan, hopefully you have that experience, knowledge or know-how to handle it. It’s not a guarantee for success by any means, but it can be handy. Of course, a few need to catch up to the magenta line masters as well.

My goal: Strive to learn something new (and I do); if you’re learning a lot, your doing something wrong.

You can always point out several folks who keep you on your toes all the time. I will say to those who step up and stay in the game from beginning to end regardless of their accrued hours, thanks for bringing your A game and doing that crew thing!!! Off topic, apologies.

 

No such thing as pilot shortage when single pilot is approved. Just imagine the furloughs that will happen... I honestly dont know why anyone would still pursue a career in this field

 

You could say the same thing about almost any other profession. Automation is around the corner for everyone.

 

Perhaps, but it seems this profession is next up. I dont hear anything about doctors, engineers, lawyers, plumbers, mechanics being phased out...

 

Actually AI is a very real thing for lawyers these days, and it is quickly becoming a thing for doctors too.


https://interestingengineering.com/a...igence-and-law


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/h...diagnosis.html