You know there is a lot of talk on here about the industry going to hell because they are hiring people with 600 hrs total time etc.................... Well some of you people seem to forget that United used to have ads in the newspapers....................Do you have 250hrs and a Commercial Pilots license??????????????? Come be an airline pilot. Whats the difference you ask????????????? The airplanes are safer now and the training has improved greatly so get off the whole, "oh my god a 600hr wonder kid"



PS I said 20 yrs ago I didnt realize how old I was so lets make it more like 40 or so years ago

I have made metion of this several times before. It use to be common to get hired at the majors in your late 20's. The advent of the regionals put off the fancy major airline job ten years to never. Also Keep in mind that no one really got hired with those times.

SkyHigh

Got a picture of that ad? I need some moral support here.

Source........???

Hahaha.....um...payback??

Classic, I gotta say

And the low timer could look forward to riding sideways for 10 years or so, then spending another decade or so in the right seat. This doesn't count the inevitable furloughs, some of which were 5 years or more, which may or may not mean anything, depending on what said furloughee did during that time. Bottom line: by the time the "wonder kid" got to the left seat of anything, he was no longer a low timer.

Today, the expectation seems to be that if you meet minimum quals (ATP) you are automatically entitled, qualified, and owed a left seat in a SJ.

By the way, the day of "do you have a pulse? Come be an airline pilot." didn't last long, and in general, real hiring quals were higher than today with most new hires prior to deregulation being military trained.

By the way in Europe they have been hiring people with 500 hrs on the 737 and 320 for generations

That was back in the early 1960's when the payscales were lower, and the the vietnam-era military pilots weren't available.

Back then if you didn't have the dough for college or flight training, most people took their old man's job at the mill/factory/mine. There weren't many alternative means of funding your dreams, so people just faced the reality.

Also, as was mentioned you started as an FE, and stayed an FE for years. FE's never got spectacular pay.

I changed the title of the thread to reflect the OP's attempt to make part of his point more accurate. His thread title of 20 years ago is incorrect as I was personally there to witness it. Saab realised his mistake but didn't fix it.

By the way, Saab. In the future when you make a mistake in the title of a thread, you can go back and change it on your own.