bla bla bla

ALPA managing the profession should have no effect on those who are interested in a private pilot license, and should not discourage anyone in that realm from flying. They should take a huge role in controlling the supply of career oriented pilots.
With the amount of new commercial pilots going unchecked countless startups will continue to immerge. If nothing changes, I think we will see the cargo arena begin to take the next hit with all new pilots willing to fly for nothing. Just a matter of time.

Ski Patrol

This thread is spot on as to why pay is what it is right now. It seems that (civilian) flight training and career progression in the US occurs through a process of attrition. There is no barrier to entry for newb pilots other than $ and a medical.

I spoke with a TSA guy the other day he wanted to be a pilot, I told him not to waste his time. After I explained to him what I make and how long it has taken me to get here he was convinced. I did tell him however if he absolutey must do it to go for it, but get educated on this website first.

Education would help, posting ads in the magazines newspapers etc. But in the end it would only be a short term fix. Once wages and benefits increased the # of newb pilots would follow. Short term however this has to happen if the industry is to get back on track. Alpa put an ad in the newspaper and mentioned what many regional pilots make these days that's a start.

Long-term two things need to change lack of portability & pay scales.

Portability: negotiate for higher 1st and 2nd year pay at every carrier. Then if mgt started jerking around its pilots the pilots could quit and get a job elsewhere without applying for food stamps.
Pay scales: $100/hr as a pilot is not the same as $100/hr as xxxxxxx.

bla bla bla

Yeah I agree 100%. The first year pay needs a serious overhaul! You hit that one on the nose; we should be able to move from carrier to carrier without the huge pay hit. I think that is one of the top three problems with our current setup. Seniority will always be a problem when it comes to moving to a new carrier, but If you see your ship is about to sink, we should have the ability to move without the huge pay hit. This will force management to be more accountable for their actions and relations with pilots.

Our next objective in the coming years should be to reduce the pilot supply, by creating more barriers to entry.

Some ways this could be done:
-Up the FAA required 121 mins to an ATP.
-Educate potential career pilots on the pay and industry before they are invested.
-Mandate legislation on flight schools against false advertisements.
-Require all flight schools have off house examiners.
-Require examiners be FAA employees for commercial ratings and up. (This will limit those examiners who will pass anyone for a few bucks)

Remember most our current work rules, pay scale etc comes from the pre-deregulation era. Now that we are deregulated we should really focus on the supply of pilots. Big changes need to be made with this new environment.

Any other ideas?

Flaps50

I say let AOPA worry about the GA private pilots, and make ALPA worry about professional pilots and the career as a whole looking into the future. The banks will give anyone a government backed sudent loan these days, and pilots tend to be trustworthy when it comes to paying it back even if it mean foodstamps for the rest of their working lives. That's killing the once expensive barrier to entry.