Airlines Hiring "Very Substandard" Pilots

Airlines Hiring "Very Substandard" Pilots

www.cbsnews.com

the airline industry is accepting pilots whose qualifications are the bare minimum accepted by the FAA - standards some critics say aren't high enough.

USA Today yesterday revealed that in most serious accidents over the past decade, pilots who had a history of failing skills and performance tests were at the controls.

Many are forced to work grueling schedules with little sleep between shifts and low pay.

"This is a concern for all of us," he said, "and what we're trying to do is ha

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WOWWWWWWW
Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me

Like Flight 3407's co-pilot, Rebecca Shaw, Capt. Dave Ryter earned around $17,000 in his first year with a regional carrier and flew coast-to-coast just to get to work because of his placement in Miami.
www2.tbo.com...

Underpaid unhappy sleepy substandard pilots flying us around?
What do you think will happen?

Dear god!!!!

Is it just me or does it look like lately we are making every bad decision possible.
It's like people in a roundtable meet and think what are the worst possible decisions we can make and execute.



www.cbsnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Deregulation of the airline industry is mostly the culprit. Back in the "old" days of airline flying, although you might be hired with 500-1000 total hours, you sat either in the flight engineer or copilot seat for 4-5 years before you had an opportunity to upgrade to Captain. Those 4-5 years gave you a chance to absorb experience and knowledge from the Captain, who had 8-30,000 hours, usually including thousands "in type" (same type of aircraft).

That being said, the simulators and the training today are vastly better than the old days, BUT, there is no substitute for experience when things go bad.

Thank the FAA and Congress for tired pilots, they caved to pressure from the airlines in mandating limited rest time. For example, if by regulation, I am entitled to 8 hours of rest before flying again, that clock begins 15 to 30 minutes after I "block in" (park at the gate), not when I get to my hotel. so, now I am down to 7:30 hours. We walk through the airport, wait for the late hotel van, there goes another hour, now I am down to 6:30. It takes us 30 minutes to get to the hotel and check in, now I am down to 6 hours. We eat and head for our rooms, now we are down to 5.5 hours. IF we can sleep (noisy hotels), we have to get up and shower, so I'll get about 4.5 hours of sleep.