One of the most logical thinking post in a while.

Nothing official yet. I’m told a few weeks away from VR EOI with the conditions attached.

As Dr Dre mentioned..there’s plenty of thinking to do for many of the older guys / gals. Take a VR now and retire happily or remain stood down indefinitely and be forced to leave come 65.

But yes 165 was the figure going around the group on Friday afternoon who had.

There was never a pilot shortage in Australia

I would agree but probably more of a 5+ year time frame. Long enough for more retirements compounded with the lack of training additional to those who have left the industry due lack of work.

Since when??? Noone has gone back to GA since 2001.

Well we can play semantics but however you want to characterise the fact that guys were going from a piston twin to RHS jet without the traditional turboprop stage. My company (and others) is recruiting pilots with hours and type experience that would not have got them an interview ten years ago.

I think there will be oversupply for most of this decade, will also be a wave of returning expats who have also been laid off right over the world, many are already back here.

I know a few who have gone back to GA in order to pay bills and stay in the industry. They are aware that they are joining the progression ladder again and will earn a quarter of their Airbus or Boeing salary for the next 5-10 years. On the flip side you have GA pilots who have been laid off, and I know some who have gone for other GA jobs but have lost out to a Tiger pilot etc. These guys are young, starting families, most will end up just walking away.

Self funding CPLs will be non existent in the not too far future. A operator up north in the medium/long term trying to find a Darwin or Cairns trained CPL IFR Pilot will need to look elsewhere and spend more on localised training. Those sort of CVs were highly regarded back in my day and at the top of the pile when we were sifting through applicants to interview. We had the luxury of being specific on what type of CV we wanted. Now the pile is largely 200 hour hopefuls from down south, with some questionable training operators behind them.

I have no idea how operators expect to even find quality or suitable applicants in the long term (15-20 year mark). I’ve had this debate with senior managers within my operator about medium to long term hiring plans, and having been apart of working groups on the topic in the past, the only solution managers have is increasing the company’s leverage in the cadet business. These guys are the check and trainers of the future.

A wise person once said the pilots stood tall, the manager was short.

Why don't you commence a sermon with respect to the negatives of shock cooling on descent. Or perhaps pontificate about how to make a CTAF call to your exacting personal standards. Must be hard work carrying that chip around everywhere.

Well put indeed. I remember going through that rubbish years ago. I had been retrenched from airline flying and was interviewed for a job flying an MU2. The then chief pilot gave me the bum's rush saying I wouldn't be able able to handle single pilot IFR and in any case would expect too much in terms of aircraft serviceability. In other words he wanted a clean maintenance release from his pilots.
I made the point that having flown Mustangs in the RAAF single pilot IFR including formation flying in cloud I figured I could cope in IMC without an autopilot. . I didn't get the job.

Two years later I was re-hired by my former airline back on the 737. Guess who was my first copilot? It was the MU2 chief honcho who had interviewed me two years earlier.

-41 is online now Report Post

hahahaha.

10/10, solid troll.

Lay offs
 

You have to ask how many have got themselves in so deep financially that they have opted out of this life?

What a chump statement.. its sweaty and less well paid but GA flying is very achievable and slow compared to high intensity jet passenger transport flight ops

Very valid question.

The mining downturn in WA a few years ago left a few people financially exposed after the rug was unexpectedly pulled from beneath them.

I don’t believe that many will go back to GA unless they have just come out of it or they have a good relationship with a GA operator, and aren’t in debit up to their eyeballs.

I’m a casualty of this mess, stood down until further notice. I don’t think I will ever return to the airline due to obvious reasons.

If I’m let go, I won’t go back to GA, been there done that sacrificed more than my share. We are settled love where we live we won’t be uprooting for a shi!!y GA job on a Baron again. I’ll find something else maybe even Something Monday to Friday I’ll get to go to all the football games on the weekend. Life will go on without Aviation.

Come Tuesday slot of questions might be answered for Aviation. Borders to open or remain closed.

Pretty much every GA piston twin, with a failed engine - empty or full, they tend to be a tad heavy to climb.

Is the pay still sh1t in GA? No thanks. I would rather do time as a driving instructor than a flying instructor. Terms, conditions and pay twice as good.

I think I know what you are getting at, maybe it could have been worded better though. People with the right attitude and some level of flying skill will always do well in GA or anywhere else. Turn up with the wrong attitude and expecting the same working conditions and wage we have all been accustomed to in an air conditioned jet (with HEPA filters of course!) and GA will spit you out, just like any job right now. And it works the other way, GA turning up at an RPT airline gig. Good luck all

The 'Right Attitude' in GA is very open to interpretation. Some of the worst pilots I have ever seen had the 'right attitude'.

Ha! That gave me a real chuckle.
I had 3500 hours in GA , from a C206 to a Citation and more in between, before I landed an airline job. I could downtrain in a heartbeat if I had to.
But here’s the thing.......I’d rather poke my eye out with on HB pencil than go back to GA. A mate of mine makes more as a heavy vehicle instructor than I ever did in GA.
Most of us who have managed to keep wife no.1 and avoided all those wacko investment opportunities over the journey will simply take the package and fade into the distance.

You obviously haven’t been inside a 737 then!

Most GA aircraft are more advanced.

At the end of the day when you disconnect and fly the aeroplane it’s no different to a Cessna. It’s just going a lot quicker over the fence.

And yes, flying a turboprop or a piston twin around was so simple and easy, it was a holiday compared to the complexities of an airline operation, the knowledge required, stress and cyclical training. Not to mention job security.