You seem to not get it: there are no pilots out there. Even if I wanted to do as you say, there is no evidence that the pilots want it that way; they all want to make money and they won't make money sitting at home. There are no qualified pilots coming in my door or contacting me for a full time job. I am on several job boards with ads in the system and only once in a while do I get any pilots who live in Alaska or are willing to move here, much less have the quals I need. I am forced to use part time pilots who take the same amount of training, tech, proficiency and line, to get up to speed enough to do the simple flights as does a full time pilot, but I have to repeat it for at least three times with part time pilots to create the same availability as one full time pilot.

BTW I know of no company in Alaska that does what we do. Some do on demand in between scheduled flights, but that is not the same and I am sure you know that.

But never mind that; I am sure you have no knowledge of this subject because if you did you would understand the problem and not push the agenda that money cures every ill.

I get a lot of 200-300 hour pilots with Private certificates, but cannot take them because we don't fly two pilot and I have no way to train someone from scratch. I have reduced the experience requirement drastically but it has not helped; I am still short of manpower. I am working my guys hard, I know that, but have no choice. I would be better off having twice the number of pilots than I have and working them less, but again none of my pilots want that; they want the money. Or they want to build hours quickly to have enough to approach the Cargo/Airlines.

But the problem is not just whether I am a good manager or not, or pay enough, it is the fact that there is a severe shortage of pilots. Real pilots, those who can do the job without years of training. Even the majors have that problem and it will bite them in the butt soon when the accident rate goes up, especially when these relatively inexperienced pilots are put in the left seat and suddenly have to start making decisions.

We need tens of thousands of pilots on the bottom of the pyramid to support the hundreds at the top. It is unbalanced now and getting worse. When the 65 year old captains retire, which will be soon, they will be replaced by pilots who have not seen as much or done as much as they did when they were promoted to Captain and the next generation will have even less time in the job. I cannot see how the great safety record established by the present pilots can possibly be maintained and I forecast an uptick in incidents and accidents. Solely due to the 1500 hour rule which also puts this country at a severe disadvantage compared to the rest of the world. I doubt if any US pilot would have done anything better than the Lion Air guys, especially if they are just button pushers.

I am not the only person blowing this whistle, there are many who see the problem now. It worries me that anyone can support the 1500 hour rule with the damage it has done already and will continue to do so. Even some of my friends in the FAA agree with me. I read a recent advertisement for Inspectors to join the FAA as potential POIs and in the third or so page of the list of required qualifications it said that to be successful, an applicant had to have had no more than 2 pilot error accidents in the last 3 years. If that doesn't make your head spin, it should.

No, there's nobody in Alaska who does *exactly* what your outfit does, but just as a single example, the medevac companies are pretty much un-scheduled on demand with their pilots on call. And guess what? Their pilots are not permanently on call, they have reserve schedules. they have time off. They have days they can call their own. That's just one example, there are other flight operations, in and out of Alaska whose operations are for the most part, on-demand with pilots on call; corporate flight departments, ad-hoc freight haulers, etc. Some have reserve schedules, some do not. I would venture to say that the ones who, like you, expect their few pilots to be perpetually on call, also like you, have a hard time attracting pilots in today's market. Never having a day you can call your own, except in retrospect, is a miserable way to live.

You have a pretty serious disconnect going here. You have never offered a competitive salary with a livable schedule, yet somehow you *know* that even if you did offer that, there still would be no pilots, applying. Most people can see the obvious logic flaw in that.

This is probably a waste of my time here, but I can explain why you're not getting applications. You see, even though you don't publish salaries and the details of your employment conditions, you're fooling yourself if you think it's some sort of secret. You see, when a pilot sees an ad for pilots from "Boofhead's Premium Air Taxi Service" they either are already familiar with your terms and conditions, from having known pilots who have worked there, or by word of mouth, or they ask around, and the answer comes back: "Yeah, they don't pay much and they expect you to be available to the company with no time off. " So most pilots say, "umm, no thanks" and don't apply.

Calculating rest in retrospect is also illegal. The FAA's legal branch has been consistent in their replies to various requests for interpretations. For it to count as rest, it must be prospective ie planned ahead of time, and must be free of all duty. Doesn't matter if it's within 24 hrs, weekly, fortnightly, monthly or whatever. 'On call' is not free of duty. It's not necessarily 'duty', but it is not 'rest'.

Skywest are no longer hiring Australian pilots on the E3 visa. Supposedly the current pilots will be allowed to renew but who knows how long for. If I was still there I would be preparing a plan B.

Yeah, there's that too.

Problem is they aren't pilots who are getting back into aviation. They are just jumping from other regionals.

Even with the new pay rates you need to fly max hours to gross 45k a year.

Interesting. I knew pilots were doing some of that, e.g., ASA to EDV, but I have no way to quantify it.

Then at some point, some regional will end up short ? What will they do then ? Will the E3 pool still look like a solution ?

At one regional I know of 80% of classes are made up of people who already have 121 time.

Just chasing the bonus.

Another "pathway" to a regional is formalized between Pan Am Academy and Express jet. Licenses-CFI-regional format:

Pan Am International Flight Academy and ExpressJet Sign Pilot Pathway Agreement

I would expect XJT is having a tough time recruiting since their upgrade time is so long compared to other regionals but I don't have access to inside info anymore.

Well, I see this is old info that I posted previously(senior moment) but I'd still like to know how XJT is doing with recruitment and if this pathway is having any effect.

Here's a 9 minute podcast where the head of pilot development at American Airlines talks about their Cadet Academy. Early on he used the term "restricted ATP" but went on to mention having 1500 hours so perhaps he misspoke. However, Spartan is on the FAA list of colleges authorized for the R-ATP (didn't know that):

https://www.faa.gov/pilots/training/...ority_List.pdf

It's the now typical tickets-to-CFI-to-regional format. But you get a "guaranteed interview" at an AA wholly-owned regional. He says they have 6000+ apps to the program:

https://cdn.avweb.com/media/podcast/...cast_Final.mp3

Z,

Thanks. I was aware of the age thing but not the XC requirement. I guess I made the unconscious assumption that people aiming for this program would be older. Probably not a valid assumption.

So much to know...so little time.

If anyone is interested in coming to COMMUTAIR in the US, PM me. It's a good time to be coming in, we are hiring 300 pilots. A new contract will be in place at the end of next year and you'll be upgrading at 950 hrs on type ( 12-16 months). The Training is good, they put the time and effort into getting you through if you are learning the US system.

SkyWest sells Expressjet. Expressjet gets E175s
 

What is ManaAir, LLC ? A holding company ? Google didn't really answer the question.

Z,

Sounds like it. Here's an article explaining the shell game. Too early to know what it means for the relationship between UAL and XJT pilots:

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...enture-454518/