Professional pilot Erika Armstrong asks — then answers — that question in a recent blog post at DisciplesofFlight.com. The problem, she says, comes down to respect and pride. “The aviation industry begs for leaders who recognize the balance required between honoring this glorious industry, while still making enormous amounts of money. It can be done, but not with a ruler and discipline. It will be done with respect, pride and profit. Bring back the pride and you will bring back the pilots.”
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The age is 65 now. Well that is a good start. So how do we get some of the restrictive rules off the books?
I could never have qualified for a airline pilot’s job even when out of high school. Those jobs were always dream jobs. So why do they make qualified pilots retire at 60? Many have years of good life left. I got my private certificate a couple of years ago from some one who was teaching, and he retired from a airline.
He became a flight instructor. He is still teaching & is about 70 now.
The retirement age now is 65.
Things seemed to be less crazy when the airlines were regulated.
The 1500 hour minimum for most new hires is not the answer. Too expensive and takes too long to accumulate that amount of time. A highly qualified Captain in the left seat worked for a very long time. What a great job it used to be!
with a pilot of over 8000 hours, 1000 of which in turbine airplanes, I watched the continued erosion of making the flying business easy prey for over regulation and high prices. the customs comparison for international travel, for example, went from simple accessibility to complex and insulting; paperwork increased to complete a simple excursion to the bahamas, caribbean or south america…and it wasn’t on the foreign requisites. Customs and immigration won the battle to demean the professional pilot with the million dollar airplane, greeted by an officious and belligerently armed swat team and relegating it to a toy in the hands of a perspective criminal. Boats on the other hand can pull up to a dedicated phone on a dock and get a quick ok or perhaps wait until arriving at home to call in and receive a one word no!
My answer is NO !
Worked as an Regional Pilot earlier this year and despite the passion and loving the work, the horrible pay, working conditions and management sent me back to my previous career.
My opinion: things are not going to change for a while and this will become a serious issues for the airlines in the future. When that really happens then things will change. But again, it will be a while. Airlines still have a number of tricks up their sleeves to force pilots to keep chugging along with he current system. But I think that long term they are just “shooting themselves in the foot”.
Everyone’s to blame here. I retired from a regional airline at 59, tired of the duplicity.
The company lied about needing concessions.
The union said they’d “fight” to get lost wages back.
The parent union said they supported us.
In reality, the company made millions during the worst of the airline contraction. The union, after years, got 1 cent on the dollar of our wages back, even though they “won” the arbitration. And the “big” union, which said they supported us, put not a single pilot on our picket line.
Robert’s comment on $100K to get your ratings and get hired, is probably low, and also doesn’t reflect your first four years of work at less than $30K per year. If you manage to make it to retirement age, the union-negotiated retirement plan is likely to disappear in yet another bankruptcy of the airline.
The industry hasn’t been “glorious” in decades. It’s no longer even a profession, it’s simply a trade, with recognition for surviving longer than the other guy, not piloting skills.
I left the industry in 1997. I’ve stayed with R.R. Sig. Engineering and have weekends, holidays off with 5 weeks paid vac. and have a happy family life. I’ve kept my CFI,CFII and CFI-MEI certs as I might instruct again when I retire at 60 in a few years. My flying buddies envy me! But ya know, I still miss the regular flying…
Where did all the pilots go? To Uber of course, where they can make more money, be home every night, and work a flexible schedule of their choice. And oh… without having spent $100K on getting ratings.
Where did you think this was going to go? The glory days of aviation ended in the early 90’s. Since then it’s 80% of one’s life living out of a suitcase, 12 to 18 hour days either in the cockpit or sitting in the crew lounge and not getting while there, 4 AM reveille or flying all night (mixed up continually), working weekends and holidays forever, missing seeing your children grow up, living in a crash pad with 8 others on short-call, and I can go on, and on!
Glamour? Really? Hey, wake up, the glory is a myth, the pay stinks, the working conditions are horrible. Invest the $100K instead of buying ratings and get a job in tech, or if you can’t figure out 1’s and zero’s, just drive for Uber, make money, have a life!
The so called “glamour” may have worked 40-80 years ago – today, its about ones QUALITY of life and long term financial security – and that’s why you don’t see business oriented people in most areas of aviation or those seeking LOW PAYING “piloting” careers. I got “smart” and left for “greener ($) pastures” thirty seven years ago!
The government strict controls & over regulation Is killing aviation. Everyone knows it. So is the government doing this on purpose or is the government trying to just control the industry for there
own benefit. Either way we loose.
In the long run they loose there jobs because soon there will be no one to control.