Imagine that...
Families of plane crash victims seek commitment from Trump on safety rules

Families of plane crash victims seek commitment from Trump on safety rules | TheHill



The families of victims who died in a 2009 airplane crash are seeking a commitment from President Trump to protect aviation safety rules after he boasted this week that his administration has been “very strict” on commercial aviation.

On Tuesday Trump took credit for reports that 2017 was the safest global year of commercial airline travel, even though the U.S. has not seen a deadly crash in years.

The last fatal crash involving a U.S. passenger airline was the 2009 Colgan Air crash in New York, which killed 49 people on board and one person on the ground.

Notice what the airlines are NOT trying to get from congress: Increasing/abolishing the mandatory retirement age, (age 65).

And before I get started, I'm not advocating an increase in the retirement age. I'm just pointing out the fallacy in their argument.

If airlines were really panicked over a shortage of pilots, in ADDITION to getting new blood in the door at the regionals they would be trying to keep ALL of the pilots that they currently have, including those who are approaching mandatory retirement. And by keeping more "gray hairs", they would slow their regional pilots progession to the majors, thus allowing them to more easily staff their regional feeders.

But it costs an airline a lot less money to hire a CFI into the right seat of an RJ at $30/hour which then "trickle-up" replaces a 30 year Airbus Captain who earns $250/hour.

The fact that the airlines are not actively attacking the "pilot shortage" at BOTH ENDS tells you all that you need to know about their current push to lower the requirements for newbies. It's not about solving a "pilot shortage". It's about maximizing PROFITS!

In other news, look for the Sun in the East tomorrow.

GF

This is a good point. But it will come. When retirements outpace SIM capacity and they can't staff their VERY lucrative widebodies, they'll be screaming for age 67. Remember, a disproportionate percentage of retirees come out of widebodies. It's not like they can seat lock those folks when they turn 65.

Oh boy, it's got to be simple...

For cheaper flights and more options, the solution is simple

For cheaper flights and more options, the solution is simple.

Born of changes introduced following a 2009 crash, the Federal Aviation Administration now requires commercial pilots to have 1,500 hours under their belts rather than the original requirement of 250 hours. That vast difference adds up to a lot of extra training time and tuition expenses, and it deserves to be cut.

Indeed, in Canada a commercial pilot license requires just "200 hours total flight time and 100 hours pilot in command time including 20 hours cross country." Recognizing that 250 hours might have been too low, why don't we reduce the 1,500-hour requirement to somewhere in the region of 750 hours?


Seems to go along with:
CARTEL DESTROYS PILOT JOB THEN CITES SHORTAGE FOR CHOKING THE LIFE OUT OF NON HUB AIRPORTS
Oct 17, 2017

United Capital Management dba as an airline said it closed its CLE hub because of a pilot shortage, omitting that destroying the job of pilot by using regionals-paying less than 30k to pilots-was a core strategy of the relentlessly avaricious cabal. As they did time and time again they decimated every job they could-your local airport was once a fortress of well paid middle class jobs with long serving employees. Today, many of the worst, lowest paid highest turnover jobs are in aviation. Now treating its readers like imbeciles, Fortune repeats the deceit that there is a shortage of pilots which is not true as they well know: for the right wage, pilots will be lined up for jobs. Ask Ryanair which is losing tons of pilots to higher paying Norwegian. Once again, the effluent of US air travel could not be accomplished without able assistance of corporate media. Equally deceitful: no mention that overjamming hubs and starving local airports is a linchpin of the cartel's windfall profits and absurd executive compensation.
America Pilot Shortage Effect on Regional Flights, Ticket Prices | Fortune

Makes me wonder...

From the link below:

"The legislation involves the change in the hours required to fly commercial planes.
That went from 250 to 300 hours up to 1500 hours," said Carr. "That gap pulls the real problem, because the person who got their certificates basically has to pay for those difference in hours."


Note the "went from 250 to 300" statement.
Priceless...


Airline companies grapple with pilot retirement problems - Story | KSAZ

Two things help people to be misinformed:
The first one is the statement '1500 hours rule'.
It is not a '1500 hours rule'.
It is a rule to require a pilot to hold an 'Airline Transport Certificate' to operate a transport category aircraft for an airline. And which, BTW, has required 1500 hrs for as long as I can remember (which is not much nowadays...).

Then there is people like the one in the interview stating that 'because they increased the hour requirements from 250 to 1500 yadayadayada...'
It is BS, we know it, there are jobs (not counting hard-to-find flight instructors) to be had between the 250 and the (mythical) '1500 hours'

But people interested in perpetuating the charade (or clueless) won't tell you that.

How about if someone with the resources to undertake the effort to educate the population, began explaining people that pilots flying transport category aircraft (as opposite as "commercial planes") are required to hold an ATP for a reason?

Beats me...


And never mind about https://insideflyer.com/forums/threa...rports.138843/

CARTEL DESTROYS PILOT JOB THEN CITES SHORTAGE FOR CHOKING THE LIFE OUT OF NON HUB AIRPORTS

United Capital Management dba as an airline said it closed its CLE hub because of a pilot shortage, omitting that destroying the job of pilot by using regionals-paying less than 30k to pilots-was a core strategy of the relentlessly avaricious cabal. As they did time and time again they decimated every job they could-your local airport was once a fortress of well paid middle class jobs with long serving employees. Today, many of the worst, lowest paid highest turnover jobs are in aviation. Now treating its readers like imbeciles, Fortune repeats the deceit that there is a shortage of pilots which is not true as they well know: for the right wage, pilots will be lined up for jobs. Ask Ryanair which is losing tons of pilots to higher paying Norwegian. Once again, the effluent of US air travel could not be accomplished without able assistance of corporate media. Equally deceitful: no mention that overjamming hubs and starving local airports is a linchpin of the cartel's windfall profits and absurd executive compensation.

If a person had to pay to get from 250 to 1500 hours, then that person is the real idiot and we don't want those people flying Part 121. I got paid as a flight instructor to build those hours. On top of that, thanks to this rule my pay as a CFI was just as much as a Regional FO made before this rule went into effect. AND ON TOP OF THAT, thanks to this rule my pay as a first year FO is double what an FO made before this rule went into effect.

My point is that these people have to stop making this out to be some type of hardship for the pilots. As long as the pilot is not lazy, they will be compensated for time building and overall will get paid more because of it.

I get that you want a higher retirement age, but it's a fairly large number who aren't even making it to 65.

Nevermind that at the level you're talking about, the "trickle up" pilot is going to be making the same amount as the one replaced. And increasing the retirement age buys a year or so at best (not 2 because so many people aren't actually making it all the way to 65 even fewer would make 67). It doesn't do anything to solve the overall problem, just delays it slightly (if at all).

Well it is a hardship for most pilots since we're having to waste an extra year of our lives to get to 1500 before we can have a real job with real money and real benefits.

But you weren't getting real money before. You were going to a Regional making $19 an hour. And I would hardly call it a waste, I couldn't imagine flying part 121 with only 300 hours.