Pilot Hiring Boom Enabled-Update

It's on.  A USA Today article stated publicly what we in the industry already know. The pilot shortage is beginning to be felt in the industry.

FEDEX is hiring, Alaska, ASA, Eagle, and many others are opening the pipeline. Although the commuters are and have been the stepping stone to the majors, many of these pilots are opting for the Asian Pacific ring to fly. It isn't the skies over the USA but the pay can be very lucrative.



Don't limit your imagination and options. Look at other locals for flying opportunities but you have to start. Do it, do it now. Start learning how to fly. To get your pilots license you still need 40 hours flying time. 20 dual and 20 solo. I did it over 33 years ago and so can you. It took me a couple years but determination drove me through it.

My suggestion is to talk to an airline flight department and find out exactly what they are looking for and set your sights there. You will be much more successful if you have a plan.

6/23/2011 Update;

Boeing stated today that there has been a lot of pilot sniping, where airlines have been recruiting pilots from other airlines. Also, based upon aircraft orders and replacement data, there will be a need for almost 459,000 pilots over the next 30 years. This is due to retirements, regulations, Asian Pacific expansion, and general International growth. That's a lot of pilots needed.   

Go Corporate, Fly A LearJet

On very dark, early, cold and windswept mornings I was in charge of the launch of about 8 airplanes that launched from the center of Dallas Love field to points as far away as Salt Lake City. The Salt lake crew would fire up one engine to get the airplane warmed up for the flight. I could stand about 40 to 50 feet behind the that engine and remain warm as toast and watch as the other Barons, Bonanzas, and others departed. Even though the temperature was hovering in the teens, that big kerosene heater kept me warm until they throttled up to taxi out.  

It was my job to quickly handle any anomaly that arose so we could meet our delivery deadlines. Sometimes I had to pull a backup airplane out of the hangar, swap planes, reroute, or pull and ship our freight or even call a charter to meet our hectic schedule. There was little room for error. We flew checks. Money. Cash and financial instruments of money in the hundreds of millions of dollars from points across the country.

Our piston airplanes were rolling through C-check inspections about every 90 days. That is 300 hours of flying. In a C-check, the airplane is pulled apart and looks like it will never fly again. But the mechanics replaced cracked cylinders, missing baffling, cleaned spark plugs, and inspected the wing box and other parts for cracks. Timed components like fuel systems, mags, prop governors and propellers were replaced or overhauled and returned to service. You learn a lot about pilots and airplanes in an environment like that.

This industry of flying checks sadly is gone. But it was a perfect environment for smart and enthusiastic pilots to learn the craft and they did. I worked in flight operations and although I am a pilot my flying was relegated to Part 91 ferrying planes in and out for inspections or maintenance because I was not a commercial pilot. So, I handled pilot communications, manifests, scheduling maintenance, and other duties like trying to keep my aviation brothers out of trouble. Sometimes this was hard because there were a few pilots that did not have the work ethic and dedication to the craft of flying. An important part of that craft is paperwork and it didn't take me long to find out who the slackers were simply by reviewing their manifests.

There is a lot to do in aviation. If you want to fly, start now. Obama will be out of office soon and the economy will begin to recover from this malaise. What is recovering right now is Corporate flying. Today I watched as several Corporate Jets departed Addison Airport. One was a LearJet. That reminded me of  the early morning launch of that old Lear-24 and pilots that flew the late night arrival and early morning departure.

Corporate flying has many rewards. Most fly the best and better equipment than airlines. You have no specific schedule and spend downtime at some very cool Fixed Base Operators. I've been to dozens getting fuel, picking up or dropping off someone. It's a completely different environment than slogging in and out of Airline terminals. Often the pay and benefits are better than Regional's certainly and the flying is far less frenetic with fewer cycles of the landing gear.