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Originally Posted by forgot to bid
If ever the ATP became the minimum to become an airline pilot I think small piston single-engine and twin-engine aircraft, such as a B58 or C310, flying freight only should have an exemption to allow PIC’s to have less than 1200 TT. Say 600 TT with an SIC and 800 TT without.
They already do. It's 500 TT for part 135. The 1200 TT is for IFR part 135. Part 91K offers a whole new venue for people to buidl time as well as earn a paycheck with considerably less hours than 135 minimums. What I do not understand is how flying the mail to an offshore island in a C172 requires 500 TT to do it VFR and 1200TT to be able to do it IFR... but you can come work part 121 with an ink wet commercial ticket....
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Originally Posted by forgot to bid
I’m going to stick to my opinion, the problem is not a plethora of pilots, the problem is a plethora of jobs thanks to scope relaxation at the expense of both mainline and regional pilots.
True, but only to a certain extent. That is not the single reason. It certainly contributed, but the reason for it are numerous and collectively have ruined the profession.
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Now that is true, they are replacing mainline flying with larger E170-190 jets flown at regional operators. It wasn't always the case though, regionals operating smaller jets and turboprop equipment just meant the mainlines were able to accept more, or additional, feed from numerous smaller airports that would otherwise not have been served to begin with. Originally Posted by forgot to bid
So now that major airlines aren’t hiring because their replacing their flying with CRJ900s and E-Jets the “pay your dues” wages of the regional industry have gone from temporary to long term. That sucks.
Then they started getting larger "small" jets like the 70+ seaters and started using them on routes that no normal, sane, person would ever call a "regional flight." The scope guidlines should have not focused so tightly on plane size only.... They should also have declared what leg length is "regional." Going from Chicago to Nassau is not a Regional flight.
The original arguement for these smaller jets was that the public prefered to fly on a jet than on a turbprop. They said they needed to have the small jets to compete with the companies that had, or were getting them... otherwise the pax would go fly the jet, instead of the prop.
So, they got jets. Then they realized they could go further leg lengths.... and they started using them on low volume runs to feed from remote airports to or from the mainline flights at larger hubs.
Then they realized they could get slightly larger jets and slip some flying away from mainline and replace it with regional.... charging the same fee's, but running the operation at regional costs instead. Then some brain surgeon at Midwest decided they could just outsource just about ALL of their flying to a regional operator using a baby 737 style E-jet.
Now, there are NO good mainline jobs to go to, the folks working at the regionals who supported all this are now stuck there forever in most cases, and things are not likely to improve much at the regionals, while things are very likely to get much worse at mainlines.
This is why you give management NOTHING.