Messerschmitt and Ppruners:
Among other pilots who fly for airlines with the CRJ etc, at least two Check Airmen told me about their shortages of experienced pilots. About a year ago the company paid new-hire pilots nothing until the first so-called paycheck arrived. No hotel money, no per diem (food money) etc. This recently changed somewhat.
One of the former Check Airmen told me in two different locations (in the staff shuttle and at the shoe shine stand) that he only flies trips with fairly senior FOs. He said that it was too much stress and work to perform IOE. He refused the company's offer for 150% (extra) pay to do IOE for new-hires and was
quite adamant and clear when he described the new challenges of such Initial operating Experience with pilots who just earned their multi-engine and commercial ratings. Alles klar?
His company now has created, or is beginning to create a specialized Captain Mentoring Program (I've never heard of this concept)-required by the insurance company-so that there might be a chance to later upgrade FOs with 2000 total hours to the CRJ left seat. An FO with that company who just rode on our jumpseat described the situation to us. These were all his words.
So there is not a real (experienced) pilot shortage in the US at some regionals?
An FO union rep. chatted with me two weeks ago in an airport gift shop. He said that up to 30 new-hires were expected to show up in a recent class but only 2 were in class the first day.
That sounded like a serious shortage to me.
His company was fined $2,000,000 dollars last winter by its larger airline codeshare partner because the pilot shortage had caused numerous flight cancellations. This was reported in a newspaper article which I read. That looked like quite a pilot shortage.
If this is all difficult to believe (in the US), then maybe the newspaper editor and those Check Airmen etc (one former...) created these stories like the Gebrueder Grimm Maerchen/Fairy Tales? And the other dozens of young pilots who claim similar situations pulled these stories 'out of thin air'?
If the US allowed more foreign pilots in with some sort of work visas etc or the airlines paid a good bit more for FOs, more experience would be available, but I have no idea at all how the process works. Even mainline Delta Airline reportedly had some pilots "no show" in at least one new-hire class last spring. The several major airlines with the huge hourly pay cuts (30-38%) also have trouble attracting nearly as many pilot applications as they attracted years ago. Check "AirlinePilotCentral" and research the pay about three-five years ago.
If an airline trains you to fly a city-pair for $29/hour as a turbofan FO, there is no more need for pilots to fly these legs in the First Officer seat in a 737, DC-9 or F-100 for about $90-100/hour. These larger jets will be gone soon, with far fewer openings already at the US majors. An A-319 can cost more to operate-sure tax depreciations are there for a while but so are hefty aircraft leases.
Alles klar?
Last edited by Ignition Override; 17th Dec 2007 at 04:54.