Yup. The "traditional" general aviation career path provides an opportunity for young people to mature through experience and maybe a few hard lessons. It also weeds out most incorrigible reckless cowboys.

Exactly if you have the dough/financing some brain cells and can PFT. You can become an airline pilot in a short amount of time. Mesa may come and go but until the CREWS/ALPA begin to inform the public at a massive scale what pilot pay is truly like, then there will always be an ample supply of "qualified candidates" applying for jobs in the 20K range. The ample supply of "qualified candidates" is what suppresses wages across the board. (don't even get me started on so called pilot shortages) Look at the legacies you've got guys over 30 yrs +, wife and kids to support and 4K to 5K hours of experience all applying for jobs that won't even break 60K even after 2 yrs service.

One of the biggest factors goes back to college. 19yr old kid can go to college have fun flying piston planes and make (what he thinks is big money at the legacies in no time) or he can sit thru some traditional boring courses spend 6 years to get a masters or 8 for a doctorate to make a salary. It becomes a no brainer 4 yrs of fun (or 1 yr at ATP) vs 6 to 8 of boredom.

I agree! So what does make a real pilot? To me it's being able to realize your shortcomming's and strive to overcome them. To never forget your always in the learning mode. To have patience for the new recruits and guide them in becomming competent confident pilots that will also have to pass the baton on to the next generation. To never give into the "it's us against them menality." Most importantly to not give into the " Not so Real Pilot" meantality that we are all prone to fall into at times.

Actually it's even simpler than this, young kid sees a job that advertises: Adventure, big $ and chicas. Sign me up the masses say.

Yes I did just quote myself and feel free to correct me if you think otherwise.

What's a real pilot?
 

Real Pilots Fly Props:D

That's true, and when on the Dash 8 don't forget the Appache aproach!!! just a little inside humor for those who know what IM talking about.

I bet you tell the ladies that size doesn't matter :D

...just playin, me and my friend captain M are enjoying the 4th...Happy 4th everyone!

This should be nothing personal against the Mesa pilots.

However, you guys freely chose to hitch your wagon to the most ethically bankrupt airline executive in the history of aviation. In many ways, worse then Lorenzo. He's been out there for years, completely known and those there knew or should have known what they were getting themselves into and the risks involved.

It does appear (hopefully) that Mesa's existance is limited and will become one of the future casualities of current times. Mesa is persona-non-grata at Delta and eventually will be dumped one way or the other. Apparently UAL isn't far behind.

Mesa and it's head clown are no longer the interest of the major airline industry and it's reputation is now uniformly in the doghouse with all their associated majors. They're almost out of cash, losing money and no investor with an ounce of intelligence would fork over money to that clown and his minions.

IMO, they internally know their days are numbered and they're in the house cleaning process of making sure they come out as rich as possible after the collapse.

So the question is, should 1600 pilots pay the price to eradicate this insect from this industry ?

The sad answer is YES !

I hate to see any pilot go unemployed, but the greater good of the industry demands the removal of this parasite. He's been sucking the blood of the host (this industry) for too long. It's going to be unfortunate that 1600 pilots held onto this executives underwear for so long, but that was a choice freely made with all the information available to evaluate that decision properly.

I'll break your post down as well as the content in it. This should be nothing personal against eaglefly. First, many of us DID NOT freely choose to hook up our trailers to Mesa'a hitch. At the time, I had interviewed with five other regionals, and been shot down at every one. Second, when comparing two things such as Lorenzo and Ornstein, use than instead of then. Third, when talking about a group that knows something, use their instead of there. Fourth, the Mesa has been losing the United contract rumor has been going on for years. Could Mesa lose it, sure, but United is only concerned with saving money, so they will likely keep Mesa. Fifth, Mesa is not losing money outside of the courtroom. Mesa just posted a profit. Should one pilot (you) be embarassed for having a gramatically impotent post (yours) full of inaccurate data (the information in your post)? Yes, you should; because you embarass me. Thanks for wishing Mesa pilots out of a job. I don't hope you and your family starve because of your loss of a job. 99.9% of Mesa pilots don't like Mesa either, there's just nowhere to go.

I would expect this kind of attitude from a man who has never been hired away from AE, and has spent his career flying ERJs with FO's who are bitter about the 8 year upgrade their facing.

AMR isn't exactly writing the book on how to run an efficient airline, keep their employees happy, or make money. But continue to talk down to people, since you've seemingly earned that right somehow.

Worst of luck to you guys at Eagle as well. But hey, nothing personal against the eagle pilots.