Step 1: Lower ATP minimums!
Step 2: ?????
Step 3: Crisis solved!

It really seems that they actually think this is the solution.

 

Fixed It For You.

 

There's an after life?

Does this mean I'm back on Reserve?

 

Yep. Just another list of people senior to all of us.

 

For those not familiar, this is what they came up with last time:

Take Flight Tomorrow | helping tomorrow's pilot takeoff

 

Well, if you put that there, step 2 has to be: Fly Shiny Jets.

 

In India they had no minimums, and the airlines hired all the flight instructors from their schools, which shut down their schools. They have been trying to get them restarted with military instructors teaching volunteers, so far not much luck.

They don't have that many schools in India, so not really such a big deal, but the U.S. produces most of the world's new pilots. U.S. civilian flight schools are over 90% foreign students. Lowering ATP minimums would quickly empty flight schools of (minimum-wage) instructors the aviation industry badly needs.

U.S. airlines are certainly expecting the robust U.S. flight training pipeline will be available to pump out cheap pilots with newly-lowered training and experience standards, when they start calling this a "crisis". Foreign airlines and governments are building flight schools overseas, and have purchased some failing academies in the U.S., so that might eventually take some demand from U.S. schools, but we will need instructors.

 

I see more young CFIs going to the schools in the US that train foreign pilots as they build time faster. For college flight programs, a large portion of the instructors are part time and students, not many stay around after graduating. If they all suddenly became eligible for airlines again, I could see plenty packing up and leaving for the regionals.

 

This is a very interesting conundrum for the flight schools, that I hadn't thought of:

If the airlines are successful at getting the 121 FO minimums lowered, a huge number of instructors will leave the flight schools for the airlines,.........leaving the flight schools without instructors,.......which will make it difficult for the flight schools to attract students,............ which means they won't be able to attract instructors,...... and the cycle continues.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

I built the majority of my time teaching South American and European students at 141 schools. You can't really survive as a flight instructor or a school for that matter, without foreign students. Unless your ATP...