Rightseat Ballast

Well, the market wouldn't be so tight if we stopped wasting our pool of pilots on small, 50 seat aircraft flying 6 round trips a day when we could be using them to fly 100 seat aircraft 3 times a day.

This is yet another example of unions giving in to corporate greed, and of pilots selling out everyone else in orer to make a buck for themselves. There are apparently a large number of you who are willing to work longer for less, and to keep the regional levels packed with pilots due to lack of movement (which, if you didn't know, will come back to bite you, just as sending jets to the regionals did).

A shortage of pilots is what this industry needs. It will force the slow removal of domestic capacity that is needed to boost revenue and aircraft size. And with the majority of flying being done in larger, mainline aircraft, then the higher all of our wages will be. A pilot shortage will dry up the regional market, leaving far fewer possibilities for mainline pilots to lose thier flying. Regional pilots will continue to flow up to fill retiree vacancies, and soon there will be a large number of new hires who can make a long career at your carrier. And a pilot with a long term interest in their carreer is the pilot who will fight hard to raise the QOL.

Why are we all so fascinated with taking measures to prevent the inevitable? There will be a pilot shortage. You will have to retire. Management will have to recognize that there is a finite suplly of skilled labor. The more we try to delay these inevitables, the longer we all continue to suffer and bleed out.

buddies8

A spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, the pilots union that has opposed changes on safety grounds, said "changing the age is a lot more complex than most [people] would realize, especially when it comes to scheduling crews" for long-distance or international flying.


Since when. No one knows what there schedules are until the monthly bidding is over and since when does a persons age come into play for the company to set up a schedule. What a lot of B.S. Of course it was an ALPA spokesperson.

Eric Stratton

removed post

rickair7777

The ICAO requirement for pilots older than 60 is that the other pilot must be younger than 60. If the FAA implements a similar requirement (likely), then scheduling would have to take that into account.

I don't think it would be a big deal, since the vast majority of >60 pilots would be captains, and the vast majority of FO's would be < 60.

The easy way to deal with it would be to restrict the very few >60 FO's to flying with younger capatins.

Eric Stratton

the new rule would not allow 2 people to fly together who are over 60 years old. that will cause a lot of scheduling conflicts.

what's that old saying "it's better to be quiet and have people think you are a fool, than open your mouth and prove it".

Eric Stratton

what if the 60+ fo is senior to the 60+captain. ie. can't hold a first class medical anymore of just wants to be a super senior fo for better quality of life.

Jetjok

If the f/o can't hold a first class medical, and he has to be type rated in the jet, then I don't believe he can perform his duties and will either have to move to a f/e seat, if one is available, or somehow get his first class back in order to continue to work. I believe the same would apply for an over-60 captain who can't hold his first class physical.

JetJocF14

Or he must move to the right seat of an aircraft that requires only a Class 2 medical.

R1830toIAE2500

The FAA does not require a first class medical for a type rating to be issued. However, some companies do require an applicant hold a first class medical when taking a type rating check ride.

RedeyeAV8r

FO's are Not required to be type rated per the FAA and are not required to hold a 1st class Medical (Unless it is in the Specific Airline Flight OPS Manual FOM). RFO's or "Cruise Capts" are required to be type rated, because when the PIC takes his/her FAA required break to avoid over 8 hrs of Cockpit duty, there must be a type rated crewmember in his seat. Most Airlines/Cargo Airlines that operate 2 seat Airplanes on Longhaul, simply Type Rate every FO. This makes for easy scheduling.

There are not to many Comapny's that give Type Ratings to FO's on Domestic aircraft, such as 737, 320, MD-80, A-300 etc.