I think this biz-oriented confab will recommend relaxing the Colgan regs and let "market forces" guide compensation; which will be fine with Wall Street and the GOP congress.

 

Agreed, and the airlines will not require a degree much longer.

But lowering standards may not be enough to attract this well-informed generation to the cockpit. They read breathless articles about airliners flying themselves, they read that NASA, DARPA, Boeing, Airbus, and just about everyone else with a dog in this fight is working hard to eliminate pilots. NASA thinks it will happen in 15 years. Where will a 20-yr-old be in 15 years pursuing an airline pilot career? Eight years to a regional cockpit, another seven years to regional Captain then new-hire at the majors. And what happens to new-hires when airlines start to eliminate pilots? They are on the street with few marketable skills. Ask most major airline pilots and they will give you their story of being furloughed at middle-age with a mortgage and car payments and kids in school. Kids can read plenty of these stories online, and there are few airline pilots they can talk to that will recommend the profession.

Kids entering flight school today have a very low chance of reaching the universal pilot goal of well-paid, wide-body captain with time to enjoy life a good retirement. Yes there is a huge shortage coming, that will only add incentive to finding ways to eliminate pilots through automation and relaxed rules.

 

Spot on! It seems to be about instant gratification for top management these days.

 

The 150K is a problem if it is a degree in Aviation Science, those are useless outside of aviation. If you get your ratings somewhere other than a college program, do community college for two years then deferred, you might be able to bring that figure closer to 100K

 

LOL-- A NON PILOT AIRLINER! IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN MY FRIENDS. I'm not getting on an airplane without pilots, not letting my family get on an airplane without pilots. WHO CAN WE THANK? HACKERS AND TERRORIST. OUR JOBS ARE SAFE FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. STAY THIRSTY MY FRIENDS

 

Yeah this has and will continue to be forum fodder for decades.

The whole "they are working on politless airliners!" Chicken Littles almost seem to want it to happen so they can get credit for bearing the news to us uninformed.

The fact is they have had the tech for pilotless airliners for a long time. There is nothing magical about remote controlled airplanes. The problem is they can't do it for anywhere near the same cost at anywhere near the same level of safety.

The software side of it (to get it to that point) doesn't exist yet. But even if it were here today, and free, the hardware side of engineering that much redundancy into every single system would be financially crushing. They could build one tomorrow. But it will be a very long time before its economically feasable to start introducing them into the 121 system in any significant numbers, if at all.

 

Equating skill with financial remuneration is flawed on its surface. Getting hired at a major is based upon a host of different factors, aviation skill is far down the list. Since the sim eval for most carriers is rudimentary on the best of days, to be honest, major selection, is more about "political reliability" than pilot skill.

 

Your thoughts are logical for sure, but not actual in my perception based on reading pilot web boards during the last ten years. Information about the low pay, quality of life, career advancement problems and so on has been around this entire time, and at best has had only a minor effect on pilot training. I still hear that classes are being filled at all but maybe the very lowest bottom feeder airlines and the industry has not seriously raised the pay for regional pilots which illustrates their actual stance on the issue. How an entire generation of internet-savvy student pilots could miss out on this info is perplexing; all I can offer is my own speculation that human nature is so strong that no amount of reason will deter one from becoming a pilot if the dream is compatible with their personal hope for success.

 

One problem, who exactly wants to stay in this pathetic chit show to 67? Talking to UAL guys in their 60s, they can't wait to leave before 65.

 

Here is why, there is/will be a shortage:
( Expert says new generation wants instant gratification. Are pare - ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, Sports )
I was watching real sports, they were stating that there was one golf course closing every day http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...-straight-year. Their theory was that the current generation was unwilling to play a game with such a difficult mastery curve, and alluded that the other skill sports such as baseball, football and basketball were in the same boat. They even showed a college that had an intramural gaming team.
So take an endeavor such as piloting, that requires a fairly complex skill set before being released into the airspace, coupled with a steep financial component and an extended calendar time frame for completion, creates a recipe for a shortage. Add financial issues and the deal is sealed.
https://atpflightschool.com/
How many months to get from 250 hrs to 1500 again?