Mike Enzi's attempts to repeal the ATP Law
#11
Line Holder
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Joined APC: Mar 2012
Posts: 34
This is the start. Wait until they try to sneak it into legislation later this year.
#12
1500 hr rule was not typical knee jerk reaction either. The families of Colgan victims lobbied hard and hounded congressmen to pass that bill. They also continue to put pressure on those who would renege--unlike ALPA.
#13
Yes. The colgan families are not going to just let this go, and neither are they going to forget.
#14
On Reserve
Joined APC: Mar 2015
Position: dem big shiny things
Posts: 14
Then a new federal regulation changed the experience requirements for co-pilots on all airline flights with 10 passengers or more. It cut the Great Lakes Airlines pilot force by at least one third, and the small airline that counts on maximum efficiency to make ends meet suddenly could not staff its full flight schedule in compliance with federal regulations. Service was abandoned at some airports (Sheridan), other airports "fired" Great Lakes Airlines (Rock Springs), and the airports continuing to be served by the carrier saw a demoralizing erosion of service.
#15
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#16
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2008
Posts: 4,922
What Enzi fails to address is the fact that people are no longer willing to invest upwards of $100,000 to get into this career and make $18-$24000 a year to start when they can invest the same amount of money in another profession and make significantly more money to start and over the lifetime of their career. Until compensation improves to the point that putting money into this career becomes a smart investment, this will never get better.
#17
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Joined APC: Dec 2014
Posts: 310
This is true. It was one thing to take out a loan you never intended to pay back (most of the DCI Academy, Gulfstream pilots). Now banks don't give loans as easily for flight training. The money has to come from somewhere. It's a lot harder to make the dumb investment when the bank forces the pilot in training to come up with the money some other way.
#18
On a related note, perhaps someone should fill them in on how the FAA is permitting companies to use disciplinary action against pilots who refuse 2 hour 117 extensions. Sadly, they might be more effective than the unions.
#19
Don't discount one huge pot of money for flight training. Tons of ex mil use GI bills to finance flight training while getting degrees. I know one particular university whose flight program was majority ex mil using GI bills and foreign students whose government footed the bill. Not very many average Joe Schmoe college kids whose parents were paying for everything. Most of those guys quit after they realized it was not fun having to work somewhat hard to get ratings at an astronomical cost, with a dismal ROI, and having to take classes at the same time. Don't know if that is representative of the larger aviation university population or not.
(That $18,000 worked out to about 3k per year of service: not exactly a windfall.)
#20
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Joined APC: Dec 2014
Posts: 310
When I got the GI bill, it was $18000, about half what a Comm MEL ticket cost, and it didnt cover anything until one got his private. Maybe things are different now, but for me, the GI bill assisted me getting my tickets; I still had to come up with the other half plus room, board, etc.
(That $18,000 worked out to about 3k per year of service: not exactly a windfall.)
(That $18,000 worked out to about 3k per year of service: not exactly a windfall.)
What I saw people doing is going to an aviation university, pursuing a professional pilot degree, and getting both tuition and flight labs paid for, in full, and receiving BAH at the e5 rate on top of that, and a book stipend. The "flight training" costs are part of the degree and not considered vocational, so there is no cap other than the cost of what is in the syllabus. That, my friend, is a windfall, depending on how they set it up. You can make it several hundred thousand dollars if you are efficient and go to a yellow ribbon school. If you already have a degree, and you enroll to get another bachelors in the professional pilot program and take nothing but flight labs, you don't burn much GI bill and they pay a lot for the few credit hours you take. I still have plenty of GI Bill left over to go get an MBA when this aviation career craps on me. And I still have over $50k in my flight account I have to give back to the VA bc my ratings were add-ons and I already had a lot of time, so I ripped thru them and didn't use that much. I could have got sea plane, glider/airplane/helo CFI and ATP, a bunch of joyrides, all paid for by the GI bill, and still would have had enough for a 2 year MBA. There are definitely better ways to use it now than when you did it, but it took some digging and a lucky assignment near one of these schools fornme to find out its true potential.
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