Pilot Shortage
 

Pilot Shortage?
No Problem!
Get a PPL.
Get practice on the numerous PC flight sims.
Buy a few hours on a real sim.
Fill out a couple of thousand hours in a log book.
Get it stamped with a forged signature.
Create a wonderful CV.
Forge a few glowing references.
BINGO!
Job in a minute!

It's been done thousands of times.

It's done all the time? Oh well ... too late for me.
Anyway, I liked the original AP article that started this thread.

The way it is.
 

The airlines will always hire the young bucks (& does) because they are willing to go in debt to pay for training, will take any job no matter what the pay, and will do whatever they're told by management.

Old experienced guys have none of these sterling qualities.

What about when the jets start crashing? Well, they haven't, yet (although I'm at a loss to explain why), but if they do, I think management's plan is to cross that bridge when they come to it.

Catwalk to Cockpit in 12 Months?
 

I was a little surprised to read this in the FT at the weekend:

"It will take just over a year for Christine Lopez, a 26-year-old Filipino, to complete the transition from catwalk to the cockpit of an Airbus A320"

This will be done under the new 'Multi-Crew Pilot Licence' scheme.

Full article at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f2939e1c-7...0779fd2ac.html

With only 70 hours' actual stick time from ab initio to cockpit (+180 hour sim time), can this be safe, or am I just reacting like a tabloid journalist??

Catwalk to Cockpit
 

If you had seen the photograph of this pilot trainee when she was still doing the other runway, you wouldn't care if she reads the checklist like a dyslexic as long as she's beside you in the flight deck!:cool:

Could make LH feel like SH.:ok:

SR-71:
Self-delusion is common among some long-haul pilots, even among some short/medium-haul pilots. My company has at least a few in each category. CRM was created due to pompous superiority to the other pilot(s). Some of them go to work so that they can then Be Somebody.

The opposite sex can be fooled for a while, thereby creating the incentive for further self-delusion. Flight Attendants are not so gullible as those outside the industry. FAs know bull***t and frosty contempt from the 'lofty perch' when they see it.

So do we.

Savoring multiple FE/FO/Capt. 'feedings' from the trough of leftover First Class meals on a 13-hour flight, after we have finished the fourth or fifth instrument approach (with tail de-ice back to wing anti -ice) on to slippery runways, is a tasty delight.

Back to the Main Topic: A Check airman for a small airline said that some of their new-hires had no Multi-Engine Rating when hired! Not even with the centerline restriction.:hmm:

This is just one factor among many which have created near-chaos at some smaller airlines here, based on what some of their pilots have described to me. Some are Check Airmen.
One airline recently canceled all pilot vacations for the rest of the year!
Their loss of pilots (maybe 400+ in one year...) to other companies-caused by their upper mgmts' total arrogance and/or mis-management, inspired the pilots to pay for a large billboard sign by an interstate highway.