Interesting read if you want to Fly Professionally.
Never wanted to fly the big busses myself, but seems like a pretty good choice at the moment, as always there are ups and downs and nothing is perfect for 40 years!!
GT
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203937004578079391643223634.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Hate to be a cynic, but, I've been hearing this for the last forty years that I've been playing this game.
Work hard and never quit, forget about "The Pilot Shortage".
Personal Opinion!
Dave

Just seems like a rule change, shortly you will have to 1500 hrs to get into a regional, where before you could at 250 hrs!
Seems like that will make quite a difference to getting the hours. I do know some who started regionals around 500 hrs to get in the right seat.
I had one guy flying for me years ago who got lost twice getting back from Haines , laid him off and he went on to hire on at one of the big airlines!! He knew how to take test, sure did not know a lot about flying.
GT
Just throwing it out there!

I don't think hiring will go up much anytime soon and hires will mostly still have more than 1500 hours anyway. Alaska Airlines, for instance, has low official minimums but the word is 5000 hours with 2500 turbine PIC will get you in the door. I am sure some regionals are much lower (maybe 2500 total with 1000 turbine) but right seat in a regional does not pay a living wage and the schedule is rough. If you're willing to go overseas the picture is much better.

You can get in the right seat of some reganol planes now with a ATP and no turbine time!
Like I said I know two pilots flying now that started with just 500+ hours and no turbine time.
GT

Pilot Shortage, Or Airline Hype?
By Mary Grady, Contributing editor-AVweb
Some airline executives are saying a combination of retirements, airline expansion, and an imminent change in FAA rules that could set a minimum of 1,500 hours for first officers will create a pilot shortage, but CBS news analyst Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger said the airlines are employing "scare tactics." In a story in Sunday's Wall Street Journal, Dan Garton, CEO of American Eagle, said the impact of the FAA's proposed new first-officer rule "is going to become much more visible when regionals have to decrease their flying" for lack of pilots. The airline may have to eliminate service to some smaller cities, he said. Sullenberger said on CBS on Monday that airline executives are crying wolf, with the aim to pressure the FAA into reducing the first-officer requirements in the final version of the new rule.
"This [rule change] is not a surprise to anyone," Sullenberger said. He added that earlier this year, during a congressional hearing, a Regional Airline Association official said that out of 18,000 pilots flying on regional airlines, only 100 might not be compliant with the new rules, mainly because they weren't yet 23 years old, which is one the proposed new requirements. "We've known these rules were coming for several years," Sullenberger said. JetBlue CEO Dave Barger said in an October speech, according to the Wall Street Journal, that the industry is "facing an exodus of talent in the next few years" and could "wake up one day and find we have no one to operate or maintain those planes." Sullenberger said the airlines have the means to solve their own problem: "When the airlines create working conditions and have wages that will attract qualified, experienced pilots, they will have enough applicants."

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Pi ... 684-1.html

What's to stop a regional airline from hiring a pilot way below minimums and paying for their training to get to the minimums by operating a light twin or sending them to a training program like ATP? There will always be people ready to join up - even for non-living wages. For a lot of people it still beats a desk job or working at McDonalds.

I'm not in the industry - but I have a hard time believing this shortage is real - and cannot be filled if it were. Supply and demand. Supply here being a boatload of pilots waiting in the wings - on furlough or slogging it out in the flight schools or flying charter/corporate gigs.

"The solution is what we do in any democracy with a free market, when the airlines create working conditions and have wages that will attract qualified experienced pilots they will have enough applicants." -Captain Chesley Sullenberger 12NOV2012

This upcoming "pilot shortage" doesn't jibe with what I see with regards to furloughed pilots, and jobs in aviation being hard to get. Reminds me of one time years ago when I saw a notice from my union saying they were short on manpower & urging young people to get signed up in our apprenticeship program. Came as quite a surprise to me-- I saw that flyer at the local unemployment office when I was signing up (again) for benefits, and we had 10-15% unemployment in our local.
Also reminds me of the book Grapes of Wrath, when California growers sent thousands of "workers wanted" flyers to the dust bowl when they needed maybe 500 pickers. Makes it real easy to get away with paying crap wages when there's 10 applicants for every job.

I have been hearing this since 1986 when I first got my license. The flight schools really push this to get their numbers up. The airlines are unhappy because they will now have to pay a basic wage that is half way decent, so they are trying to panic congress into repealing all our part of it. The last article I saw said the FAA is looking at granting exemptions to 1000 hours for folks that go to 4 year aviation schools, hmmmmm now who would push for that?

I just ran an ad on 350 and am still sifting through literally hundreds resumes,the majority jet pilots with 5k plus hours.

"Pilot shortage" has been around since I started in the early '70's. The pilot job hunt always has been, and likely always will be, a "who you know" or at least "in the right place at the right time" business.
When there really is a shortage I will start getting some responses to my resume mailings, and I don't answer every ad out there unlike some people I know.
As much as I would like to have a fun job for a change, flying a 206 in Alaska for instance, I don't think it would pay my mortgage in California. Therefore I won't waste your time or mine.

porterjet wrote:As much as I would like to have a fun job for a change, flying a 206 in Alaska for instance, I don't think it would pay my mortgage in California. Therefore I won't waste your time or mine.

Well... Maybe not in a C206, but move up a notch or two to a King Air or Casa 212 with an outfit like Bering Air, you'll pull in an easy $100K + with a 2 week on/2 week off schedule. Not bad for what works out to be six months work a year.

Gump

How long do you have to be a rampy with Bering Air to get into the seat of a King?

Are all the outfits like Buffalo is portrayed on Ice Pilots?

Unlike Buffalo, Bering Air pays well, has minimal turnover of pilots, and has a core group of high time older pilots who are where they are because that's where they want to be.

If I was headed back north, Bering or Ryan would be my first choice. For a young guy with a few thousand hours and maybe some turbine time, also a good place to start, though Era or Grant might be more realistic.

Gump

hmmm, had no idea they were paying that much. I can recognize a King air across the ramp 9 times out of 10. Does that count? Things are starting to happen over here in paradise, I should know which way I am going in the next month or so.

porterjet wrote:hmmm, had no idea they were paying that much. I can recognize a King air across the ramp 9 times out of 10. Does that count?

I've seen some guys who can't.... That's a start.

Bering Air has at least one opening right now. They want minimum 3000 hrs with an ATP, though to be competative will require a substantial bit more.

http://www.beringair.com/

http://www.beringair.com/gallery.php

Gump

Speaking of a small world, we were in Riyadh sitting in the airplane waiting for pax when who should taxi in but a Lynden C130. It was one of their P2 registered airplanes.

Thanks, I saw that too. I was kidding about the King Air, I do have 500 or so hours in one and about the same in a Navajo.