chazbird

US government could disallow their employees to travel on carriers, or carriers contracted with a major carrier, where the flight crew, or any employee of the company, is on any form of federal, or federally subsidized, aid (IE food stamps). When the government lets contracts with private companies they frequently require specific minimum/living wage or other similar conditions or they do not award the contracts. A 14 HR duty day with 2 hours of flying at $23 an hour is less than the federally mandated minimum wage. Carriers that scheduled or operated even one of those flights would face a blackout/ban of federal employees passengers for the entire carrier, including the overseeing carrier (IE major) Makes good sense, huh? But...good luck with that idea.

FirstClass

I'm not sure I fully understand what you just said there but it got me thinking. Could competition with these subsidized carriers be an opening to eliminate RLA as far as unions are concerned.

chazbird

The interpretation that a carrier which schedules or operates a flight where a flight crew does a 14 hr. duty 2-3 hrs flight time @ $23 hour) is being paid less than the minimum wage. The government sets a national minimum wage and should/cannot allow its employees to travel on a carrier that violates that wage, they would be violating their own laws - which, of course, is supposed to be illegal. There are probably several million federal employees who ride on US carriers, which in some way, operate under these conditions, including buying a ticket on a mainline carrier. The government not flying on these carriers might be a financial interest to those carriers.

It is also an interesting juxtaposition with this minimum wage or federal benefits qualification in regards to the RLA. The minimum wage law post dates the RLA, and in effect, could negate or nullify the RLA. Or, if precedence is the case, with the RLA coming before the minimum wage then maybe carriers don't even have to pay minimum wage. I suppose this could become a supreme court sort of thing.

The RLA thing continues to amaze me. It was supposed to protect vital industries, IE, the railroads. How many airlines are there? How is it that any one is vital? How many have failed, gone bankrupt, etc. No one stepped in to protect them because individually they were "vital".

SMACFUM

Make sure to read the last paragraph of this article. Thoughts??? First steps already underway at the FAA to further erode the ATP requirement for 121 SICs???

Pilot Shortage Turns to Crisis among Small Cargo Carriers | Air Transport: Aviation International News

"John Duncan, director of the FAA’s Flight Standards Service, attended the entire RACCA conference and tried to assuage some of the members’ concerns. He assured members that the FAA is working on rulemaking that would allow time-building pilots to log legitimate flight time in the right seat of a twin-engine airplane that normally needs a single pilot. “The process takes some time,” he said. “We are pushing that to the top.” As for the Ameriflight exemption to lower the number of hours required to fly as pilot-in-command under IFR, he added, “we’re working that as well. We understand the urgency.” Flooded with unmanned aircraft exemption requests, the FAA has become overwhelmed, he indicated. “Our resources are strained,” said Duncan."

Planedrive

I think is is very important people stop calling this "The 1500 Hour Rule."

Military pilots only need 750 hours.

Four year university grads only need 1000 hours.

After graduating college with around 250 hours the students will only need to gain more experience for about 1 year before they can be hired into an airline.

Who would want to become a pilot when you can make more flipping burgers and be home every night to see your family. Pay/poor benefits is the only cause of this "pilot shortage"

FraxAvi8tor

I agree with what you're saying but have an issue with your last point. Obviously someone is taking the pilot jobs that pay poorly, which perpetuates the low pay problem.

No business is ever going to compensate or throw money at employees unless you are a) highly qualified and unique in your position, or b) there are no applicants accepting employment under the offer. Pilots are extremely skilled with a huge responsibility in their positions, and airlines know this. However, none of that matters in terms of pay and compensation until pilots demand it through action.

andreas500

Stop picking on mid-evil (spelling change intended) poetry...

block30

This!

Two year program grads need 1250 hours. My personal feeling is that hour reductions should be based on the merit of the course, not whether or not a degree is granted, much less whether the degree is a two or four year...

comrcap

No credit for ground school,military,141.. Period. Experience counts. Period. Put your time in flying freight in a caravan, twin Cessna , whatever. Scare yourself before you EVER think of flying passengers.

Cloudnine

I think right seat in a metroliner or beech 99 in night imc is experience worthy of logging. At least as worthwhile as a safety pilot in a 172 or a flight instructor in the pattern(both of whom can log pic) Creating a route for inexperienced pilots to gain exposure to real commercial flying, and to log that as flight experience is not the same as eroding the qualifications to hold an atp. Gimme a break, I think most people forget how demanding it is to get to 135 mins, much less atp mins.
As GA shrinks , so do low time oppertunities.
People want a career path. I know many guys who are 5 or 7 years in the game and still below 1000. It's not financially viable to spin your wheels for 5-10 years with debt and interest.
The FAA is very very restrictive on logging as it is.