Lately there has been much conversation about Pilot qualifications and experience in today's Airline flight decks. There has also been much conversation about pilot pay and QOL.

Being a pilot used to be a glamorous career, which has changed drastically to what we have now in the industry.

So what can we do to make this industry better? Better pay and more experienced pilots?

We need to stop discussing all the problems of the industry and figure out a way to make it better for current and future pilots.

 

Regulate the airlines again...

 

instead of bean counters running things how about honest managers who worked from the bottom up and actually understand the fact that it costs money to make money

 

Increase the experience requirement for 121 carriers. No more 250 hour pilots.

I think 1500 hours should be the absolute minimum.

 

There's a reason gov got out a long time ago. No one wants to touch this industry, it's doomed. You can't make any money from selling a one dollar product for a dime. I'm surprised more airlines haven't gone under.

 

I totally agree... ATP mins should be standard for hiring mins

 

Things will never go back to the good old days. All of this negative press is simply a PR problem for the airlines as soon as the heat dies down and the press finds another ambulance to chase it will be back to business as usual.

UNLESS... the government steps in and forces change. But you can bet there would be a big pushback from the ATA, RAA, etc.

 

All this talk about raising the mins to fly for an airline. Increased hours doesn't necessarily make better pilots, quality flight training makes better pilots. While going through training they even tell you the most dangerous time in your career is when you aquire about 800-1000 hours in the A/C and complacency starts to set in. I feel for the captains who constantly baby sit the person sitting in the right seat, but that could have absolutely nothing to do with the amount of time they have. If they got through the airline's training program and they are still a burden on the captain, then that's not showing a lack of experience on their part, that's showing a lack of judgement on the training department. That is the point of IOE, obviously no matter how much time you have, there is going to be a transition period when switching aircraft. If the IOE captain signs them off, in my mind that should be good enough, and the amount of hours they had prior to that should have nothing to do with it.

 

"Change we can believe in!" - WHATEVER.

 

Yes quality training makes better pilots, but when it comes to flight hours you have to draw the line somewhere. 250 hours is not where that line should be drawn.

Enough experience is gained in that 250-1500 time frame that I think the line should be drawn at a minimum of 1500.