Colgan fiasco<\/a> nearly 10 years ago.\u00a0 It\u2019s the inevitable consequence of a bureaucratic butt-covering reaction by the NTSB and FAA which rippled through the industry and now into the military.<\/p>\nColgan Air Flight 3407 crashed short of the runway while on approach for landing at Buffalo, New York in a wintry mix of snow and fog.\u00a0 The pilots knew they had ice on the wings (which reduces lift,especially at low speeds such as when landing).\u00a0 The airplane systems worked correctly to warn the pilot but the pilot over-rode the warnings.\u00a0 50 people died in the crash.<\/p>\n
In response, the FAA raised the minimum experience requirement for airline pilots to 1500 hours.\u00a0The pilot shortage would have manifested itself sooner but the mandatory retirement age was raised from 65 to 70, which kicked the can down the road but did nothing to solve the cause of the shortage: expense.\u00a0 When I took flying lessons years ago, it cost about $150 per hour to fly with an instructor in a little airplane like a Cessna.\u00a0 Flying multi-engine and jet airplanes cost much more.\u00a0 1500 hours at even a modest $200 per hour is $300,000 which nobody can afford.<\/p>\n
Nobody but military pilots.\u00a0 They don\u2019t pay to fly, they get paid to fly.\u00a0 As Baby Boomer pilots retire, airlines are scrambling to find qualified pilots and the biggest source is military.\u00a0 In effect, the military is subsidizing the airlines\u2019 pilot training program.<\/p>\n
If the Air Force solves its retention problem, look for airlines to begin hiring foreign pilots in droves, stealing from their airlines and their militaries.<\/p>\n
Joe Doakes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As long as they increase the seat size, I don’t care if they hire Chinese Navy pilots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: The Air Force is running out of fighter pilots. The Air Force believes that the primary cause of this exodus is the recent hiring boom by the airline industry which offers experienced military pilots lucrative civilian jobs.\u00a0 Pilots cite too many Micky Mouse requirements, not enough flying. I say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-and-the-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64307"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64322,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64307\/revisions\/64322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}