FighterHayabusa

I remember flying West Jet and the F/A telling the passengers how many 10's of thousands of hours the flight crew had. It made me feel safer that I could divide that into a number of years spent in the cockpit.

In my effort to singlehandedly better the work conditions and increase pay for pilots, I've sent my first op-ed piece telling the flying public to inquire about the experience level of their flight crew before they buy the cheapest ticket. I suggest everyone here do the same.

As long as people are blissfully unaware that they are flying with an FO who has paid to be there and only has 190 hrs, and a captain who only ever flew a real jet on their IOE, companies will continue to hire low time pilots who will work for nothing.

Flatspin7

Hmmm I think I smell something burning

DMEarc

Did you ever go to college? The reason I ask this is because if you have paid any attention to principles of a free market economy, you would have heard of a little term that we who think call....here is its:

Supply and Demand.

Three years ago, you needed 1200TT/100ME at every regional. Now that the regionals are growing again, they need pilots and the only ones available are the lower time guys.

I got hired at 900TT/234ME...I don't think that a guy with 1000 hours is all that more qualified than myself.

Do you think that there are pilots out there with 2500TT as a CFI that are just waiting to go to an airline until they pay more? Why do these 500 hour guys go to the airlines? It's because it pays more than a CFI.

Dude, wake up. If you're going to get published and many people read your peice, you better be ready for a blunt force of pilots that will be knocking on your door looking for a job.

Joeshmoe

I hear crackling as well.....flamebait or my morning bacon ready?????

ryane946

Lets try a little experiment:

-Fly on airline A because we have more experienced pilots. To get these pilots, we had to offer them more money. Since labor costs are usually an airlines largest (or 2nd largest) expense, your ticket will cost more for pretty much the same service.
-Airline B uses less experienced pilots and therefore the ticket costs less for the same route.

Ask the traveling public if they would rather fly on A or B. I bet most say A. Then ask them to purchase a ticket on a route served only by A and B, and I GUARENTEE you over 90% of them choose airline B!!! No question!

Money TALKS and bullsh*t WALKS!

It is going to take a tradgedy before someone (the FAA) steps up and enforces reasonable minimum experience requirements for pilots of part 121 aircraft. In the airlines, everything is about cost. And less experienced pilots cost less. Just like with security screeners. Before 9/11, these workers were contracted by major airlines whose only concern was the lowest cost. It took an event like 9/11 before the government stepped up and took control (the TSA). While I hate the TSA as much as anyone, the fact is that they are a better quality (and safer) product than what we had before 9/11.

Personally, I feel we going to have to see a series of crashes involving low time inexperienced pilots before the FAA steps up and implements reasonable minimums. Personally, I think anyone who is flying a part 121 aircraft (captain or FO) should have an ATP.

Joeshmoe

The reason is the public is naive and this naive public not only puts faith in the airlines that they hire competent pilots but they probably don't have a clue what constitutes "high time" for a pilot. We all know very well what is low time vs. high time but 1000TT to the flying public may seem like a ton of time. Ask the little old lady in row 12 what she thinks is alot of flight time and I'm sure thats what you will hear.
In addition the public sees thousands and thousands of flights take-off and land every day, day in and day out without incident with the very same low time pilots that are now flying so they tend to take a percentage attitude that accidents in an aircraft still seem rare. Take all of this naive knowledge that the flying public has and it doesn't take a Wharton MBA to see why its all about PRICE. The only ones who give a rats a** about pilot time are PILOTS.

FighterHayabusa

You're right. But I feel you were far more qualified then the Mesa "pay to play" 190 hour person.

I was only using the West Jet story as an example. I'm not advocating 10's of thousands of hours as a minimum for a regional (which West Jet is not).

I will let the real pilots argue about how many hours should be the minimum.
But as a private pilot with about 190 hours, I am certainly not qualified to be your First Officer.

SikPilot

Don't some of the overseas airlines have a program where they bring in zero time candidates,select the best ones, get them a commercial license and then stick them in the right seat of a Boeing/Airbus? You would think that's an accident waiting to happen but it never happens. Scares the bejeeezus out of me.

ANPBird

Come on guys! You have to admit The Fighter Hayabusa did kick some ass in Pro Wrestling! Was that back in the Nintendo days?

shanejj

A F/A can tell me more B.S!! Did you see with your own eyes that they had 10's of thousands of hours?
Ofcourse not...how would a F/A know that? hmm...the crew told her?

The public doesn't really care about the experience....the majority of the public thinks that you have to a dinosaur to be a captain....
everytime a 20y kid tells someone that they're an airline pilot...
"oh, don't you have to go to schoolf for 10years?" "but you're so young"
Thats the same B.S you get everytime....the public, maybe some exceptions, but majority doesn't know a thing about aviation....so asking themselve "how qualified is my crew" is not floating around in their mind....
and they have a lot of more important things to think about than to debate whether a flight crew is qualified or not....
They passed the writtens, passed sim rides, even INSURANCE companies accept it...who the hell are you?