Flying cheap

I don’t think that anyone can designate the pilot shortage into either a reduced pay situation or an increase in retirement of older pilots, it’s a combination of both. The fact that average starting salary for a pilot in the regional airlines is $23,000 is only half the problem. 1^st year pilots might only make $19 or $20 an hour and would only be paid for the time spent in the seat with the cabin door closed (Lewinski, 2014). There is also the consideration that the baby boomer pilots are all going to start retiring in the next 5 to 7 years or so. To delay a possible shortage the FAA extended the retirement age from 60 to 65 (Lewinski, 2014). Both of these instances are correct and will both contribute to the pilot shortage in the future.

With the FAA raising the amount of hours needed to become an airline transport pilot they are killing the spirits of the new pilots that want to be part of the industry. From raising the hours you increase the total cost of becoming a pilot not to mention the time it takes to accumulate these hours. The fact that pilots know there first job in the industry, meaning a regional carrier, will only pay on average $23,000 a year doesn’t encourage new pilots to get started with their flying career. Obviously the new pilots that get into this industry know wages will be this way when they start so they will ultimately do it because they genuinely love to fly. Some solutions to this rule would be to lower the hours for students that graduate from an accredited flight school or to raise the average salary for starting pilots in the regional carrier bracket. This would give incentive for pilots to stay with their flying career knowing they could start out making potentially $35,000 to $40,000 a year. Airlines would be getting pilots that could want to make regional air carriers a career. I know that I would be happier if I went into work out of college knowing I was making $40,000 starting out in my aviation career. Overall productivity for the company would be better and it would ultimately create an atmosphere of pilots wanting to be at work and love their job.

Some union organizations that do not concern the pilot portion of aviation include AMFA, NATCA, and the IBT. The first union is AMFA, which is the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, they obviously are a union that work for the mechanic side of aviation (Aircraft Mechanic Fraternal Association, n.d.). The NATCA are the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, they work with the air traffic controllers in aviation (National Air Traffic Controllers Association, n.d.). Lastly there is IBT, who are the International Brotherhood ofTeamsters, they work with every job associated with the aviation industry from flight attendants to aircraft engineers (International Brotherhood of Teamsters, n.d.). There are many more unions that can help with any job you might find in aviation you just need to find them and seek help.

Professionalism is handling situations in the best way possible to your knowledge, always doing what is right, and owning up to ones mistakes. The big situation of professionalism that I noticed in the documentary "Flying Cheap" was when the Captain in one of the flights actually rewrote a weight and balance sheet to make it so they could takeoff overweight. After the first officer clearly calculated that the weight was insufficient for takeoff. Another situation I noticed with lack of professionalism was the fact that some regional airlines were actually hiring pilots that had as low as 350 hours of flight training. This is scary to think that back then pilots with no more knowledge then myself would be in charge of hundreds of lives on the numerous flights that they would have had to make that day. The airlines should of have had stricter guidelines to the minimum hours necessary for the new pilots that they were hiring.

I do believe that the first year pilot pay and/or the compensation structure of a regional airline are a contributing factor in the lack of professionalism. If someone is getting paid next to nothing to do a job as taxing as flying a jet aircraft, your mentality for work and doing a good job will be next to nothing. As one of the pilots had said in an interview the phrase “move the rig” was used a lot. This shows that the pilots would do whatever they had to do to get from point A to point B regardless the safety aspects just for a paycheck at the end of the day.

I plan to maintain professionalism when I start my career as a pilot by politely questioning my Captain’s judgment but only when I feel it would be necessary. I think that it is crucial that a Captains judgment should be questioned because at times they could be in the wrong for a certain situation. I also will maintain professionalism by knowing when to say when, I mean this by using the “I’m Safe” checklist. If I feel that I am not fit for duty for some reason I will not fly that day, because your judgment toward your health is your responsibility first and foremost. Not only would you endanger yourself but the souls onboard the aircraft as well.

References

Aircraft Mechanic Fraternal Association. (n.d.). About AMFA. Retrieved from http://www.amfanational.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_page.cfm&page=About20AMFA

International Brotherhood of Teamsters. (n.d.). Who we represent. Retrieved from http://teamsterair.org/about/who-we-represent

Lewinski, J.S. (2014, July 14). Turbulence ahead: The coming pilot shortage and how it came to be. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/turbulence-ahead-the-looming-pilot-shortage-and-its-decades-long-history/374171/

National Air Traffic Controllers Association. (n.d.). Safety above all. Retrieved from http://www.natca.org/about.aspx#content