News for today. Regional Airline Association
 

News for today. Regional Airline Association asking congress for help!

RAA Asks Congress & FAA to Return Emphasis on Quality Versus Quantity Hours; Details Small Community Air Service Threat


Republic Airways Chairman, President and CEO Bryan Bedford explained how the FAA’s new 1500 hour First Officer Qualification (FOQ) rule has sparked a pilot shortage: “We cautioned lawmakers and regulators, throughout the lawmaking and regulatory process that including a largely inflexible and arbitrary flight-hour experience requirement as part of the final mandate would not only fail to improve safety, it would hasten the growing pilot shortage and imperil air service at communities across the country.”

RAA urged Congress and the FAA to work together to fix the pilot supply challenges emerging from the 1500 hour rule.

“I cannot think of a single greater challenge to air service to small and rural communities than the very real and significant pilot shortage facing US regional airlines and ultimately the flying public,” said Bedford.

“By emphasizing quality-of-training over an arbitrary flight time experience, instead of the reverse, we can pursue our goal of protecting the world’s safest aviation system, while preserving access to that system for communities large and small. At the same time, we will stimulate job creation throughout the entire aviation marketplace,” Bedford concluded.

Here is the article:

RAA Asks Congress & FAA to Return Emphasis on Quality Versus Quantity Hours; Details Small Community Air Service Threat

Everyone should write your Congressman and express your beliefs. I say more pay for what we do!
Last edited by CaptainRJ; Today at 08:50 PM. Reason: editing

Ugh. I'm not surprised by this, but it's still disappointing.

From my other post:

They are trying to steam roll congress with minimal flack from pilots themselves and their unions. You all know what their grand plan is, don't you? They will push for lower hours AND/OR push to allow foreign pilots in. Wait till Aug hits, then you will see them parking more planes to foster panic so that the public will then start screaming to the congress/senators while the owners sit back and laugh. It will get pushed through, one way or another. Plus you know they are greasing the politicians through their PAC's. Yep, hell of a system we got.

Let's face it, they (owners) are better organized and count on lazy pilot unions and pilots too tired from long days and commutes to lift a finger to fight them. Want proof? Go to the Regional Airline Assoc website, and look for the lobbying info. Then go to your union webpage, and look for their lobbying info.

All the union has to do is post the names of the congressmen with emails/fax/mail and a simple form letter, post it to their pilots, and hit send. How hard is that?

In fact, where the hell are the lobbyist that the unions are bribing? They should know about this stuff and be keeping union leaders "in the know", who should have already sent mail to the pilots regarding this.

Makes you wonder if the unions are doing all they can with the dues they collect, or if they are not paid off by management to do just enough to look like they care.

We all this would happen. I'm not surprised, are you? We all pay union fees to Teamsters and ALPA, if they don't show effective management now and fight back, the law will repeal or hours will be lowered by the end of year. And we are pretty much paying for nothing.

From the outside looking in,I think part of the problem is that regional pilots are too afraid to really take a stand and speak up, go to the meetings the MEC's and higher ups go to and knock on these guy's front doors.

Okay so you've voted down the concessions, great, but my honest opinion is that you can't stop there.

Yes this whole 1500hr rule and shortage of pilots is very political, but it's quite simple. Company wants to make a profit, and makes the cuts where they can make the cut.

I think what people really need to do is bring it up to Congress that the MEC's the Chairmen are purposely turning a blind eye to the fact that PAY is in direct correlation to the reasoning why there is a pilot shortage as well as the 1500hr rule (Which sounds great in theory, but doesn't help the situation)

We have this 1500hr rule as a safety precaution right? But who remembers way back in ab-initio training the IMSAFE Checklist? I'm sure for the most of us all do.

Illness- Can be brought on by Stress
Medication - Will be taken to mitigate the illness
Stress - Can be brought on by the fact of pilot's worrying about how they will pay their bills, support their family, paying rent to keep a roof over their head
Alchohol- Well gee what do a lot of people turn to, to relieve stress
Fatigue- Because after a 6 leg day tons of delays and commuting to base(Yes i know its your choice) you want to be in room with 6 other dudes sleeping in a crashpad
Eating - I'm sure people can't be eating all that great or for the most part healthy at payrates ranging from 15k-27k a year.


Things like this should be brought up. None of what I wrote qualifies a safe pilot. Nobody wants to be broke, stressing over money. Nobody wants to be broke period. Nobody wants a pilot that's main sole task is flying the aircraft and taking passengers from point a to point b safely with their mind on the stresses of life because they aren't getting treated fairly or paid adequately. These issues need to be addressed to Congress. We are defending yes, but we must BUILD A DEFENSE. That's how an argument is won. My .02

Amen brother... But the pilots HAVE TO start holding the feet of the union leaders to the fire, after all if no one complains then they will ONLY do minimal work. They should have all the paperwork regarding congressional contact already in the pilots hands. If the damn union can't make this happen, then maybe it's time to find someone who will. What Benny Hill said about congress can be applied to union leaders, "Make congress work, vote them out of office".

The ATP "Airline Career Pilot Program" ad being at the bottom of this page is hilarious!!! The loan I took out for that program several years ago went to collection!

Union leaders at every regional should be emailing the pilot ranks the I'm safe checklist daily, before very friggin flight this should be reviewed and followed.

IM SAFE

Way to stick it to the man...:rolleyes:

Well in a perfect world.....They would turn a blind eye to that too...But gee that would be great if they actually had to use the checklist prior to flight.

Cancellations galore!

Raise the regional pilot pay to a normal livable wage... $100/hour for captain, $65/hour for FO's and shortage will be INSTANTLY solved.

Air Service to Small and Rural Communities | U.S. House of Representatives

All through RJSAviatior....in particular GJet and proprunner....

ALPA IS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Click the link above to see what your "lazy" union is doing. Who's sitting there, front row, (yesterday) saying over and over to people in the Aviation subcommittee that it is an ECONOMIC problem and NOT a pilot shortage? Lee Moak is. That's what your ALPA dues pay for- the head of the largest pilot union sitting in front of the PEOPLE THAT MATTER, in front of the SUBCOMMITTEE THAT MATTERS, telling them that the profession is in turmoil, that there shouldn't be flags of convenience, that standards shouldn't be lowered, and that pay needs to go up. He TELLS THEM that. Click the link and watch.

Notice that Moak of ALPA is invited to those meetings. Not the APA. Not USAPA. Not the IAM airline division. Not SWAPA. Not the SkyWest pilot council. Moak is there, representing us. And this isn't the first time if you have been paying attention.

It doesn't end there. Don't you think Moak has the ear of the very important members of that subcommittee? Hearings like these are "dog and pony" shows. The real business gets done behind the scenes. Moak knows the players (notice the camaraderie he shares with the subcommittee members). They know him, and he knows them. That doesn't mean ALPA gets everything it wants. That doesn't mean ALPA can stomp its feet and cross its arms when it doesn't get its way. It means we can INFLUENCE what's going on. That's what you pay for with your dues money.

Premade form letters, easy point-and-click-and send e-mails are nice, but quite frankly, pilots couldn't be bothered to even do something that simple.

Further, IMO, the 1,500/1,250/1,000/750 rule isn't going to stand. The hour limits are arbitrary, brought on by inefficient government regulation of a problem that the regional airline brought upon themselves. The regionals were doing STUPID things when it came to pilot hiring, they couldn't police themselves, so they got slapped with a piece of admittedly imperfect regulation.

However, I don't think the regionals are going to find a "cheap" solution to their problem, either, if they are allowed to hire lower-time pilots. I would suspect that some sort of (expensive) "ab-initio" program or highly structured airline cockpit training programs will come about that would be paired with the training one normally receives to obtain private, instrument, and commercial pilot certificates. I'm thinking a "Lufthansa" type program. It will probably cost 10's of thousands of dollars, involve more training in complex aircraft and advanced simulators using airline "techniques and procedures," and at the end of the program will qualify a graduating pilot to sit in the right seat of a regional airline cockpit.

But it won't fix the regional's problem. Even if a program such as this is developed, and it did lead straight to a regional airline cockpit for a reduced flight hour pilot, it's still going to cost a chit load of money, someone is going to have to pay for it (who? us or them? both?), and this profession has STILL lost its luster. The regionals are either going to have to raise pay so that new pilots can afford to go through this type of program and make their loan payments, or pay for most or all of such a program themselves. Either way, effectively it is a "raise" for the regional airline pilot, paid for by the regional airline industry (and hopefully NOT by a government grant as desired by the regional airline industry).

Shortage of qualified pilot applicants at the US regional airline level of compensation does not mean there is a scarcity of qualified pilots in the US.

Write your congressman, and express your concern either way.

I'll be seeing Frank this weekend when he comes home and I'll be sure to express my opinion on the issue and my opinion about BB. Scumbag ring a bell! He actually said the navy pilot can do it so why not let a kid fly. Well, here's on reason! The squid will only plant himself not 50 to 100 other folks. Plus he can eject when he f's up.

Letter to congressman and transportation committee sent. Please send letters about our actual situation. Clog their inboxes with responses, but please be professional so we are actually heard and not dismissed as union thugs. I like a good rant, but I would actually like to see our pay go up.

Yes!

Thanks for sharing this information. I think it may not be a bad idea to also write to congressmen not on the Aviation Subcommittee.

Excellent! Thanks for taking the time to make a difference!

Yes, send something that is professional, and I think concise and to the point is important, too. These people do have a lot on their plates.

I think citing a few pieces of information from the recent GAO report on the pilot shortage myth would be good supporting evidence to points made in a letter/email.
www.gao.gov/assets/670/661243.pdf

Write.
Your.
Representatives.

Please :)

They can lower the ATP requirements to 100 hours if they want. Does this mean you have to take the job? Nope. When you think about it, being a regional FO is a crappy job even if they gave it to you with no training at all! It's Starbucks wages with much worse working conditions. As a Trans States Alumni I speak from experience.

The best lobbying effort available to the industry is Families of Continental Flight 3407.

http://www.3407memorial.com

"...1500 hours and an ATP does not make you a qualified pilot."

-Bryan Bedford, President/CEO, RAH

...smh

Actually, very little of what he has to say makes sense. He simply sounds desperate to protect his greed.

Did I hear him say first year FO's at RAH make in excess of $30K? Is there a new payscale somewhere or did he just sit there and lie?

From another one of my later posts:
After reading the testimony of Lee Moak, I have to say, he couldn't have done a better speech. About time.

I do however, stand by my view that ALPA blew a huge opportunity. Imagine having 51,000 pilots contacting the US House of Representatives with their thoughts? That would have driven home the point that Mr. Moak is trying to make and reminded the Representatives that people, not companies, vote these Reps in or out of office.

As far as pilots not being bothered to do something, you are unfortunately correct. After long duty days and exhausting commutes, management depends on the status quo of the exhausted state of pilots to keep pilots from even thinking about raising issues. They want exhausted sheep who will do what they are told and not raise a stink.

Think about it, it starts at the interview. We all dress the same, look the same, and pretty much give the same stupid answers to their "jump through our hoop" interview system to get into this glorious career, only to slowly rise in the ranks while we starve.

Just when we can afford to pay off some of that debt load after years with the company, the company is declared bankrupt because labor cost is too high, and another company with the same assets is started with another name, yet seems to have the same managment. And if you jump through their interview hoop one more time, then you might be lucky and get hired to start over at F/O year 1 and get to starve all over again.

In the meantime, ALPA has given away more seats on scope so that the management will be "pals" and keep more pilot jobs. Yet every dang time they agree to this, it takes more pax away from mainline and gives them to regionals. When you have a lower passenger load, you don't expand mainline flying. When you don't expand mainline flying, you don't hire pilots. So then you have years if not decades of mainline hiring stagnation, locking regional pilots into regional Hell for the remainder of their careers.

WHEN THE HELL IS ALPA AND THEIR PILOTS GOING TO FIGHT SCOPE? I'll tell you when, when they transferred all the mainline flying to regionals, and converted all the high paying jobs to slave-ation wages, that's when. And you'll be stuck in a job where there is no more carrot to be dangled, because those jobs are history. Not enough people are speaking out. It reminds me of the following from WWII:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.


So ya, you have a point, ALPA was there. But they could do a hell of a lot better job of uniting pilots and organizing them then they are doing. If they made it easier for pilots to do that, then maybe pilots WOULD make an effort to fight. ALPA isn't doing it! They are doing just enough to let them say, "We tried". And I wonder if this isn't the real dog and pony show, if the union hasn't been paid off by management. If they wanted pilots to be heard, then this was the chance. Which is why I said they blew a great opportunity when Moak went to the hill.

re: globalexpress's quote Notice that Moak of ALPA is invited to those meetings. Not the APA. Not USAPA. Not the IAM airline division. Not SWAPA. Not the SkyWest pilot council. Moak is there, representing us. And this isn't the first time if you have been paying attention.

Ever stop to think about why *Only* ALPA was invited????

I stop and think about a lot of things, Gjet. However, judging by your comments I think you are letting your cynicism to get the best of you.

Cynicism? No sir, it's clarity that comes from not drinking the union kook-aid. I call it as it is.

In today's news, take a look at the new Envoy.... What do you think Envoy is going to do with all those surplus pilots? Get ready for year 1 again (if you are lucky) at your new operation, and for this cycle to repeat to infinity until labor takes a stand.

Lets see how ALPA helps these poor guys out, and how their dues helped protect them from this merry-go-round.

Until you guys wake up, speak up and take action, this is going to be the norm.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

David Bourne from Teamsters probably would have argued with management.

No, it's cynicism.

The problem is that you don't understand what a union CAN do and CAN'T do. Unions don't own companies. They represent employees. Belonging to a union doesn't mean that your pension gets protected, that your pay can never be cut, that your airline can't be mismanaged into the ground, that you'll never be furloughed, or that you're not subject to marketplace forces. Unions can influence those things (sometimes), but they don't control them.

If the owners of Envoy want to shut their doors tomorrow, that is THEIR choice. There is nothing ALPA can do about that. It is THEIR company and they run it AS THEY CHOOSE as long as it complies with the contracts they have with their employees.

So how do Envoy's ALPA dues protect them from the "merry-go-round?" Pretty simple. Their dues DO NOT protect them from the idiots managing Envoy. If Envoy management wants to choose a path where they want to ignore the economic realities that exist today concerning pilot labor and continue to throw concessionary contracts to their union employees, there is NOTHING ALPA can do about that. ALPA can't force Fabregas to stop offering ridiculous contracts. All ALPA can do is say "yes" or "no" to the contract offered their pilots. That's it.

How can ALPA help those "poor guys" out? Well, ALPA is right now, aren't they? They're helping every regional pilot in the biz, in fact. Had it not been for ALPA (or any union, for that matter) on the property, right now the Envoy pilots would be flying under an incredibly concessionary, long term contract. What happens then? Now every other regional would be forced to match that concessionary Envoy contract if they didn't want to shrink. And if the other ALPA regionals said "no" to concessions themselves and were forced to shrink as punishment, then you'd be on here complaining about how terrible ALPA is at THOSE regionals. It seems to me that ALPA, and the Envoy pilots (more significantly), are doing much for the industry right now.

Now if the Envoy ALPA pilots continue with their (balsy) stand, eventually do suffer the consequences of refusing to accept a ridiculously concessionary contract, and are furloughed, there is NOTHING ALPA can do about that. ALPA needs to honor its pilots' wishes. After the vote it's on Fabregas and AMR. About the only thing ALPA can do is perhaps get them preferential interviews at other regionals, which they won't need considering the regional job environment.

And your poem refers to a Nazi purging, which is inappropriate to the situation that exists now. Other pilots ARE standing up to management, aren't they? Didn't ExpressJet say no? Didn't Republic say no? Didn't Envoy say no? Isn't that what is supposed to be happening?

Now what you're implying is that you want "ALPA" to do something? You're the president of ALPA. What do you do? And if it involves some sort of "Code Red" which would be against the RLA, by all means, show us all how it's done by starting a website, putting your name at the top of the list, and organizing that stoppage until your demands (whatever they are) are met. You don't need ALPA to be a tough guy. Go for it. Show ALPA how it's done! What's the date going to be and what are we doing? A sickout? Show up for work and set the brakes? A good 'ole fashioned sit in? What's the plan?

Your union dues can't be used for political lobbying. That is why ALPA has the PAC and why most other unions have no voice at all in DC. If you want to get votes in DC it has to be done the tried and true way. You have to buy them!

You have little understanding of the political process. A call to action which is what you are discussing is a effective tool if timed correctly. You don't employ it long before there is even a vote. So far there are no indications that legislation changing the hours will even make it to the floor of the house or senate. If you are a ALPA member you might want to get in touch with the political affairs guys and get the rest of the story. You might be very surprised at what they are doing. How much did you donate to the PAC?

Watch the whole video of the meeting....Air Service to Small and Rural Communities - YouTube

Very informative....worth the 1 hour and 30 minutes of your time.

Small and rural airports in Pennsylvania!...OMG, only connected to a massive road network and no more than an hour or two from a major hub...Oh yeah, there'd be massive suffering without EAS :confused:

"Byron" Bedford :p

Typical bait and switch. Our FOs make 30k, plus bennies, plus our cost to train them.... It's not US, it's THEM!

All of the RAA has the same problem- they all signed low margin contracts expecting nothing to change and now want the traveling public to sacrifice for their lack of foresight. It used to be their employees that sacrificed but they can't find any more :o

As far as teaching touch and goes in a SEL not contributing to experience, it absolutely teaches airmanship as well as what PIC really means.

Interesting to watch! If you are in a time crunch, at about 21:15 Capt Moak Testifies, followed immediately by Bryan Bedford.

At the end is question and answer session. At about 1:14:00 Congressman Graves gets his turn to ask questions. I honestly thought he came off as more of a d bag than Bedford. He comes off as if every 300 hour pilot can keep up with a 20,000 hour, no problem. He keys on good judgment as being paramount, hours be damned. My question is, how does one develop aeronautical decision making without real flight time??? He also says he would do away with FAR 117*, which even Bedford replies that FAR 117 and just good pilot rest in general is a good idea. I am going to send Mr Graves a message and politely explain a different point of view.

*Disclaimer, I think FAR117 could be tweaked, but to say repeal FAR 117 is just ludicrous. .

Well, Ford & Harrison coached BB pretty well. Build a rapport and a reputation for reasonableness by supporting "safety" and FAR 117, answer a question with a statement you want to make, create a strawman, provide half of the facts, and praise your adversary--Moak.

F&H finally found a way undermine 1500 hr rule while dissociating from the Colgan crash. Make it a "Colgan only problem". Yet the same FAA is responsible for overseeing Colgan and all regionals.

Funny Bedford hired all those Colgan guys to run his Q400 program....

Not trying to be judgemental, but there is no shame in not paying back those who invested in your career, as we sit here on the precipice of a real hiring wave?

Delta's hiring all they can train right now and that may continue for more than a decade. Why shoot yourself in the foot?

I don't think there is the political will for this committee to reverse itself and recommend changes in the form of a new or amended bill to the full congress. The FAA is of course still within their congressional mandate boundaries to alter the 1500 hour rule somewhat to ease the burden on regional airlines. But they didn't do that, they elected to put the hammer down on the regional airlines.

In the end, the committee also accepted testimony from the non partisan CBO who concluded that although the truth about a true pilot shortage remains mixed, there is no real evidence to support a pilot shortage finding. They did go on to say that there might be a shortage of pilots willing to work at a regional airline for other reasons.

I think the CBO testimony will carry a great deal of weight. If any changes are coming we'll see them from the FAA not Congress.

Had it not been for ALPA (or any union, for that matter) on the property, right now the Envoy pilots would be flying under an incredibly concessionary, long term contract. What happens then? Now every other regional would be forced to match that concessionary Envoy contract if they didn't want to shrink.

Please elaborate on this. How did Alpa keep Envoy from flying under an even worse contract?

News for today. Regional Airline Association
 

Is it just me, or did Bedford's argument boil down to this:

"We can't find enough pilots who meet our high standards*, so we want Congress to lower the standard."

*Claiming only 18% of those who applied last year did meet their "high standards".

Talk about a non sequitur.