Notice! Potential Airline Pilots,

If you ever wanted to be an airline pilot, I can't explain how important it is to get going on your flying career right now. It isn't getting any cheaper and it will potentially be much harder in the future with new regulations in place.

There is word that funding for pilot training is drying up in major flight schools and the primary culprit is starting pay with commuter airlines. However, the commuter is the stepping stone to larger equipment and the reasons are obvious.

Commuter pilots fly longer hours, fly at lower altitudes, worse weather, make many more cycles of take offs and landings. Crew Resource Management (CRM) is paramount with the commuters and major airlines love commuter pilots for the reasons stated. They have a lot of experience with new nav systems and are familiar with glass cockpits. As a matter of fact, many pilots who have been hired by the majors are actually stepping down in navigational equipment as the legacy carriers have been hard pressed with global competition to upgrade the cockpit.

This is understandable with the older McDonnel Douglas DC-9 series and Boeing 737 series aircraft. The newer 717 was a technological leap in the cockpit but there are but a few of them. Boeing now owns Douglas and that will be the end of the nines, Super 80s, 88, and 90.

Now Embraer with their 170 Series carrying 76 seats and advanced cocpits are filling the void left by the early DC 9 and the 737-100 with an 85 seat capacity. The 737-100 was quickly followed up with the 200 which carried even more passengers and the demise of the "flight engineer" soon to be followed by the Boeing 727.

The point of this article is to hopefully instill a sense urgency in you. You that have a desire to fly. A burning desire to experience the vistas daily that few humans experience. To be part of a community that is rare, disciplined, professional, respected, and eventually, financially rewarding.

But, you need to start as early as possible.