Well, maybe not in common carriage. And I'm not arguing with you. But to say they have "never had one of their jets written off" might not be a true statement.

Something about an EMB that got wrecked in a training accident down south, and the fuselage is now used as a cabin trainer comes to mind. Thankfully, they all lived through it.

Unless you call being able to use the pieces to actually fly later not being written off.

It's harder than you think it would be to 'roll one on'. :D

[email protected] <-----Send the articles author Joe Brancatelli and email, and offer him your two cents. I am a "child in the cockpit" at 23, but also consider myself a professional whom regards the safety of passengers above all else.

And $25,000 first year pay - he must have been talking to someone from Horizon :)

I agree with almost everyone, being one of those young guys I get that "are you old enough to fly this?" Seems to have dropped off a little recently.. maybe the last furlough made me look older. If the public is afraid of our planes A) they're newer than probably half of the mainline jets and B) Pay more to go on mainline, or drive to the big airport that has mainline service, or get up for the one flight that's flown on an airbus instead of the four by RJ. And on the age issue, wouldn't the guy who's 23 probably have to be pretty sharp to get where he's gotten by that age? Let's just all dye our hair grey... it'll be fun.. like ipods and backpacks..

USMCflyr

By your estimation what is the avg. age and hr. total for your students when you punch them out of the frs?

Its been awhile but I seem to remember gettin nuggets into our squadron flyin Phrogs (HMM-162) with <500 hrs. Granted we had two pilots and a min crew of three, yet I would speculate that one of your Hornet drivers hits the fleet squadron with less than 1000 hrs total time. These pilots are often single pilot with dangerous stuff hangin from the wings and belly.

I dont understand why the public seems to be ok with young men and women operating expensive equipment and making life and death decisions everyday throughout the world both in airplanes and on the ground.

Sorry for ranting with out a point, I just hate the media and public opinion about age and flight time equating to Yeager(Sully)esque skills.

As Always Semper Fi everybody and keep'em shiny side up.

This is dead on (pun intended). Our young men and woman (18 years of age young) are part of a team that is entrusted in missions critical to the survival of a lot of other men and woman. The reason that this is OK to the public is that they don't directly see it or directly experience it. Sure, they hear about it but it's not the same.

When they get into an aircraft and see a young man or woman they now have a direct stake in what "goes on" in this specific aircraft because it's their life not the life of another. Hypocritical isn't it?

Ya gotta love those squares. They keep it interesting!

Would it be irony if that lady had a car accident now? Speeders, cell phones, and road rage, OH MY!

I think I'll support Obama's plan to improve ejamacashion. The ignorance is simpy overwhelming.

American Eagle has 1000 of their 2700 pilots (mostly RJ captains) with at least 10 years at Eagle alone. It would be reasonable to say that most of these pilots have at least 10,000 hours total time. I have 16,000 total and 7000 PIC in RJ's and 20 years at Eagle alone.

Ironically, most (management and those junior) want these pilots OUT of those positions because they cost too much and/or aren't planning on going anywhere................go figure.

Nothing like emotion-based sweeping generalizations to feed the erronous and misguided fear of the flying public. In the last 2.5 years, we've had a 737 crash on takeoff, an Airbus crash into a river and a turboprop crash on approach, yet "Commutahysteria" is all what has peoples tongues wagging.

Nothing will ever change.

But do we apply make-up when flying?