Are You Afraid To Fly?

busdriver11
Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:25:06 +0000

“I’ve thought about it, and took a few lessons, but it is just too expensive for me right now. Experimented with the military/ROTC a little bit but didn’t sign the dotted line because no one can guarantee pilot slots at the moment. Plan as of now is to just get a job following graduation, and maybe use that income to finance flight training.
I keep hearing about the looming pilot shortage, since the recession kept a lot of people out of training. Problem is, I’m one of the people that got pushed out!”

It is really expensive to pay for it yourself, I never would have. And you’re right about ROTC, I’ve heard even those with pilot slots (and you could find out whether you get a slot before you are totally committed, though) after UPT half of them fly the drones. Which in todays generation, you’d think would be a prime assignment, like playing video games, but after you’ve done all that training, it is probably frustrating.

There will have to be a shortage sooner or later. People like you stopped pursuing it because of lack of opportunity and huge paycut/loss of benefits. There are still a few that are hiring and paying well, though. At my airline, people are starting to retire like crazy, hiring is too slow and they’ll never keep up. It’s always being at the right place at the right time.