There is a pilot shortage?
Forgive my ignorance, since I just saw “An Officer and a Gentleman” again last night. But aren’t pilots with military training still a big source of pilots for airlines? Or has our military downsized so that they just aren’t producing that many? Or are many military pilots staying in making a career in the military, rather than retiring from the military and becoming pilots in civilian life???
I was a military pilot, and I flew Learjet as well, but I never went to the airlines. After a military career, I wanted a job where I was not away from home and was not on call.
At times I have regretted my decision, but mostly not, and I am quite happy.
Almost all of my fellow pilot from my military training class are still flying for the airlines. Most got out before a 20 or 25 year career. In the mid-1990s, many of the Vietnam era pilots were retiring and there was a huge hiring boom.
But in the mid-1990s, one could expect to stay the regionals for a very short time, and the pension plans were fantastic. No longer.
The downsizing of the military has had a very detrimental effect on the airline's pool of candidates. The cutbacks to the military have been very deep, and very real.
Flying fighter jets and then an Airbus are two very different things.
The guys I know who are still flying for airlines flew the big tankers and other larger cargo planes. Many of them transitioned to major airlines ten years ago or so.
The fighter and A10 jocks mostly work for contractors. None of them fly much any more at all.