This?
Posted on 06/29/2022 4:19:07 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Silenced, censored, and coerced—the fate of the pilots who are so desperately needed.
Every night, I hear a report on the network news announcing the number of flights canceled. If it’s a slow news day, reporters might interview a couple of irritated, stranded travelers. Thousands of flights are axed on any given day. Many more are delayed. News readers just read the report, without any substantive questioning about why there’s suddenly a great shortage of pilots. The weather is the only excuse ever offered, and that doesn’t work when there are no storms slowing things down.
What’s going on? We’ve never had a pilot shortage before. We may currently have more air travelers needing flights than a year ago, but not more than before COVID—and yet, here we are, facing an entirely new problem. It’s so bad that American Airlines is offering pilots on its regional carriers double and triple pay for the month of July if they’ll take extra flights.
It’s not hard to figure out what’s happening—despite the seeming prohibition on our pilots saying anything about it. We rarely hear a peep from them, at least on mainstream news outlets. There’s even a noticeable dearth of questions asked at Fox News of late. Nobody is questioning this fiasco beyond some Fox Business report of a lot of pilot retirements. It just is, apparently.
There are always going to be retirements and saying, as the link above does, that it’s “expensive to become a pilot.” Give me a break! That’s never been an issue before. So why even consider it now? What job does one get where advanced training doesn’t cost money?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
There’s really no need for it.
There are so many Part 141 schools now associated with or actually their own universities - Embry-Riddle, UND, ASU, USU, UNH, etc etc ad nauseum - that an oversupply is a real possibility within a couple of years.
And the US carriers are all looking at starting their own ab initio training programs like what European carriers have had for decades.
United is already underway with Aviat. Which is really just an anti-White program, but that’s a different subject...
Mil pilot pool is maybe 1/3 of what it used to be and most majors are now 70/30 civil/mil for pilot experience. The mil pool may even shrink further with decreasing pilot ranks due to UAV adoption but they say not anytime soon...maybe.
It really comes down to money. Flying for regionals is a crap job that pays nothing. It amounts to a hazing gig you have to through to get to the majors, and during the covid stupidity, a lotta people simply walked away from it...you can make more at McDonalds, or if you’re still stuck on flying, NetJets or Flexjet. So when that pipeline dries up, the major carriers are stuck.
Raise pilot pay, you’ll get a surge of people. But that’s hard in the face of surging fuel prices.
In flying the saying is that there’s no such thing as a pilot shortage, just a pay shortage.
Still true.
This?
Oh wouldn’t we hope! 8<) /autocorrect on the d*mned phone
What is the drain rate from “commercial passenger” air over to the much more pleasant “carry the freight that can’t complain and flies without the d*mned passenger security crap”?
What’s going on in every aspect of our countries collapse?
Brandon.
There was a four year college here in Nashua, NH called Daniel Webster College. It was one of the few places to get a commercial pilot training while going to college. I had met several young people that attended school there just for that program and their air traffic controller program. From there they were hired by the majors flying the puddle jumper routes.
Unfortunately, it was bought by ITI Institutes, who then went out of business a few years back. So, Daniel Webster College has sat empty now for several years.
“What job does one get where advanced training doesn’t cost money?“
Think of college, where you pay as you go. There are few opportunities for flight school and all your ratings can be financed with loans. Imagine paying for college, in cash in a little over a year.
I had a conversation last year with the president of Nashua Community College. It is part of the UNH system. They are trying to bring back the air traffic controllers program and the commercial pilot program into the UNH system. It was just a matter at which location.
If it was at Nashua, they would use the Nashua airport and the regional FAA center in Nashua.
If they did them at Manchester they would use the airport. If they did the programs at UNH Durham they would use the Pease tradeport. Formerly, Pease airbase. Pease still has the national guard refueling wing and the second longest runway on the east coast.
Dunno, but FedEx is a job everyone wants: high pay, great equipment, nice smooth night air to fly in, no stupid PAX issues to put up with.
Other box carriers not as great, but still many decent. UPS maybe even better. Prime Air up and coming, no lack of money...but it’s probably woketard land since Bezos owns it, has some Navy affirmative action twit running it.
Interesting question. But they’re screwed by the same logistics problem: not enough people in the pipeline.
Good time to be a young pilot...except for the part about the vax.
Exactly and more. I am a retired Army Aviator, and I am not the only one of those who has avoided commercial airlines. That business is too volatile, furlough risks are always there, and since seniority is everything in airlines, many of us think that it is not worth the hassle building seniority when we already have a pension and can get a lower-paying but more stable supplemental job elsewhere.
I myself work in the travel and transportation industry, but flying a desk (operations management). And I get to sleep home every night.
Today, United has one of the most diverse pilot populations of any U.S. carrier with nearly 20% of our pilot group made up of women or people of color. We are working toward raising that number even higher by partnering with diversity-led organizations and continuing to remove gender and racial barriers. And we’re going one step further with plans for 50% of United Aviate Academy students to be women or people of color to ensure our students reflect the diversity of the customers and communities we serve.
Sorry, but I'll take a seasoned former USAF, Navy or Marine pilot any day. Whatever their gender or race.
I wrote a note on a similar post last night. I am a recently retired Navy Pilot (Commander, Flight Instructor) with an ATP. I flew big wing P-3s (3 tours) and became a Goshawk jet instructor (3 tours) and have carrier landings and a lot of multi hours. I applied to Southwest and on the first page of the application it asked if I had the shot. My application was immediately denied. I have not bothered to apply anywhere else. I now work in a brewery in McKinney, TX, where no shot is required:)
Hey! Army flies too!
Read later, before buying plane tickets.
I honestly have no idea why United’s attorneys think they can get away with outright anti-White discrimination announced to the public.
Maybe they know something about employment law that the rest of us don’t. Even Tucker brought it up the other night: it’s flat out illegal.
If it sticks, then the converse is once again legal: you can announce an All White, All Male pilot program. Then we’ll see who the market trusts, won’t we?
“For every senior pilot that leaves, two junior pilots can be retained”
Yeah. For a sensible airline manager, not a difficult choice, is it?
And most people in the post-60 age cohort flying on borrowed time until the medical gets denied it’s a relatively easy decision...long as they haven’t spent themselves silly.
Well gee, I hadn’t realized Webster had gone belly up.
That’s too bad. Seemed like it was the only program of its type in the upper NE.
Sorry for the omission. I usually just don’t think about Army doing fixed wing, but I’d be ok with an Army wingnut too!
“There are so many Part 141 schools now associated with or actually their own universities - Embry-Riddle, UND, ASU, USU, UNH, etc etc ad nauseum - that an oversupply is a real possibility within a couple of years.”
True, except the cost of attending those schools is many times more than the cost of of attending the maritime academies.
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