Fond du Lac students mostly fly for fun
 

Fond du Lac students mostly fly for fun

There ya go...more proof that less and less folks are interested in a career in aviation.

If you read the article it says some want to get paid to fly. There is always going to a handful of people who want to fly for fun.

Yes, and the thought preceding yours is:

"Most of them want to fly for fun..."

The year before I was hired at my current 121 gig... I instructed full time. All but one of my students were just there for recreation. Most were Boeing or Microsoft employees just there to have a good time.


The one student that I did have who wanted to fly for a living was from India. He's back there now.

Which is true. Compare the amount the private pilots vs ATP pilots.

I had 50 checkride signoffs in 4 years as a full time CFI and not one of those was an American commercial student. I had a lot of Americans who were looking for a PPL or IR and owned their own plane or were members of a flying club. I taught some Chinese commercial students going back over to China to fly. I didn't teach or even come close to teaching a single American student who wanted to be an airline pilot.

I'm not sure why the airlines didn't see that coming with 8+ year upgrade times, 20k starting salaries and constant concessionary contracts in times of profit.

That's not a problem for this financial quarter. Maybe next quarter.

Nailed it. "Long term planning" in this industry is defined as "What should we do next week?"

Did anyone catch the quote that is going to make getting paid more money in this profession difficult?

"It's pretty easy to fly an airplane once you know what you're doing," he said. "Most people think it's harder than it actually is. You're dealing in three dimensions instead of two on the ground."

What a bad quote. It's pretty easy to do most things once you know what you're doing. I've had a senior software developer and a nuclear engineer both tell me that their jobs are pretty easy once they knew what they were doing. Both of those people still make 6 figure salaries.

The way I see it, I should be compensated well not for flying from A to B, not for the routine or because its hard. Its for being as fit of a professional as possible that in the event of the non-routine, the abnormal, the emergency, the judgement and skill that I have prevent a national catastrophe. Each one of us truly has tens to hundreds of souls in our hands, let alone the solvency for our airlines.

With enough experience an open heart surgery becomes routine. Never sell short your importance, you never know when a flock of geese will appear..

"While Marko went to a professional flight school where he said he became certified to fly in 43 hours, he said most recreational pilots will need at least 80 hours in the pilot seat before they take the Private Pilot exam. Pilots need a minimum of 40 hours of flight time to be eligible for the test."

He seems a little arrogant to say that because these students didn't go to a "professional flight school" that most will need 80+ hours to get their PPL. Maybe he is just a bad instructor???

Outside of college I've never instructed someone who wanted to make a career out of flying.

Same here. 7 students and only 1 remotely has any interest in going pro. Others include a computer guy, a restaurant owner, and a nursing student.

Exactly. Even surgeons are "one step at a time" in learning and doing. There aren't many jobs out there where highly educated highly paid professionals are living minute by minute just winging it, not knowing if they are going to do it right, one slight step away from disaster, for 30-40 years. That's just rediculous. In that regard, all jobs are easy, once you actually get there.

People like to fly though. Its a dream that has inspired mankind from the beginning. I don't fault anyone for indulging in that dream, and I'm not too worried about potentially out of context attitudes like we can see from the bubbly university kids. The first time scheduling hoses them they'll get over it. :D