Pilot Certification

The Federal Aviation Administration is thinking about raising the requirements for pilot certification.

The current pilot certification requirements are slightly different than they were in 1950, yet the safety record of the airlines, even with the regional carriers multiple takeoffs and landings, is better than 1950 when most of the airline pilots were military veterans. The accident rate fell from 1997 to 2006.

This improved safety is due to technology. The voice and data recorders exposed what caused accidents and training has been adapted. New composits materials, better metals, hydraulic systems, backup systems, better avionics, better generators, better electrical, and better engines. Everything is better.

Many people think experience is the best training to make a good pilot. Experience flying in the tropics does not equal experience flying in extreme winter conditions. Training can be done more effectively to insure that pilots experience all and many irregular situations with very few hours of training compared to the vast number of hours of experiences required to experience the same situations. Past accidents are always good references for training.

But if the Air Line Pilots Association, ALPA, wanted to raise their salaries they should lobby for an ATP (Air Transport Pilot) requirement to be 10K hours instead of 1500! That would raise the cost of training to a prohibitive amount and time required that few pilots could afford to train and get certified. With fewer pilots the pay would go up. Supply and demand will decide pilot pay. This is what has happened in the medical field. It takes years and over a hundred thousand dollars to be certified to remove a gall bladder. Gads!

I paid $1400 dollars for my commercial pilot's course in 1956. That equals to $11,000 in 2009. It was with a CAA, Civil Aviation Administration, later FAA, approved school, Sowell Aviation, Panama City, FL, An approved school required only 160 hours for a commercial pilot license. I had 10 hours of instrument training during my commercial course. I got my instrument rating later.

If they had required more hours I might not have chosen aviation, something I was passionate about.

If they raise the requirements for pilots and the salaries go up, I suspect you will have pilots signing up for the money, not the passion. I suspect that is what is happening in the medical profession. People who would love to be a doctor cannot afford the time and expense. People who are smart and can afford the investment will become doctors for the money, not the passion. I believe in a free market, but the medical market, with all the government licensing requirements and regulations, is not a free market. If ALPA is smart they will learn from the American Medical Association.

Charles Tolleson, retired airline pilot. lucky, not good