PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Pilot shortage - myth or reality?
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Old 3rd Mar 2019, 16:47
  #33 (permalink)  
Big Pistons Forever
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Canada
Age: 63
Posts: 5,202
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As someone with 30 + years working in commercial aviation I can safely say I have never seen so much movement and so many opportunities for low time new entrants. However IMO I have also never seen such low levels of skill in new hires flying serious iron. Historically new pilots either worked their way up through the GA or 3rd level commuter school of hard knocks or came out of a gold plated airline run cadet program with a high entry bar and a very high level of training quality ( essentially the model that allows the Military to safely and effectively put a 300 hr pilot in a fighter jet).

Now in Europe there is essentially no GA and everyone comes out of an airline puppy mill where ability to pay is the main entry bar.

In Canada there is a real GA sector but there is such a demand that a MEIFR CPL, a pulse, and 500 hrs will force you to choose among multiple employment offers on Q400's and Regional jets.

It is only in the US that the ATPL requirements for virtually all airline jobs forces new pilots to make their bones in the real world before they get on with an airline. I think this process serves to weed out most of the unmotivated and the poseurs with the ones left being the the guys and gals who truly have the flying bug. I don't think it is coincidence that the US continues to leads the world in flight safety incident/accident metrics.
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