My Theory on Regional Pilot Shortage

[jynxyjoe]

?????

 

[Soku39]

Read Digital Apollo. The role of the human in complicated computer/air-spacecraft systems has been a point of discussion since we had computers and air/spacecraft. My own personal belief (as a computer scientist who operates airliners for a living) is that the automation camp has gone too far and it's time to put some emphasis back on being a human operator. I'm hoping that, if anything good comes out of recent accidents, an emphasis on Just Flying The Damn Plane will return.

(Yes, it's okay to just fly the plane. Aviate, navigate, communicate, automate.)

I am in training at an airline and am being told quite the opposite. Autopilot all the way man, luckily I get to fly 40 year old C-130s at my other job to keep me sane.

I really don't want to think that in my lifetime I will see single 121 ops. Is it possible? Probably. What makes me feel a little better is the fact that aircraft manufactures are still making two pilot aircraft that will be around for a long time. My career is going to be around 40 years once I hit the airlines or another gig. The 787 and the like are not even fully implemented yet and this is still a two pilot deal. 737max, a320neo, a350..two pilots. All of them are here to stay. Not to mention the other airframes still in use are all two pilot that are sticking around. He'll, the MD80 is still around. I might be safe, but the next next gen might not be.

Cost to retrofit fleets to single pilot? Too much I think. My amateur opinion.

I do not believe that retrofitting a 747-400, A320 or any air frame more modern than those two to be single or no pilot would represent even a moderately difficult technical challenge, nor be cost prohibitive in today's, corporate oligarchy greed above all else world.

 

[Soku39]

None of this will matter once Congress is successfully paid off by foreign interests to repeal cabotage laws.

And I do believe cabotage to be the biggest threat to the American aviation industry. At this point I'm wondering why we even bother having borders if we don't plan on protecting jobs or operations in our own country. This extends beyond aviation into other industry sectors as well.

 

[ppragman]

And I do believe cabotage to be the biggest threat to the American aviation industry. At this point I'm wondering why we even bother having borders if we don't plan on protecting jobs or operations in our own country. This extends beyond aviation into other industry sectors as well.

I've never really been sure why we have borders at all. I've flown over a bunch of them and can't really tell the difference between one side and another.

 

[Soku39]

I've never really been sure why we have borders at all. I've flown over a bunch of them and can't really tell the difference between one side and another.

As is shooting another average joe because he's wearing a different colored camouflage pattern, both of whom are there not of their own volition but because some politician or rich person had them sent there to do said deed. As it turns out that's how human history has always been and will probably always will be. Far as I can figure I myself won't be changing it any time soon, so I might as well get paid to fly around in said politician/rich mans airplanes and do cool stuff with it (as well as wearing a flight suit and wearing ray bans to get chicks) before I too bite the dust.

 

[ppragman]

As is shooting another average joe because he's wearing a different colored camouflage pattern, both of whom are there not of their own volition but because some politician or rich person had them sent there to do said deed. As it turns out that's how human history has always been and will probably always will be. Far as I can figure I myself won't be changing it any time soon, so I might as well get paid to fly around in said politician/rich mans airplanes and do cool stuff with it (as well as wearing a flight suit and wearing ray bans to get chicks) before I too bite the dust.

Well theres nothing wrong with that - but the more I think about it, the more I think our group adherence to these imaginary lines has been to iur collective detriment.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

I am in training at an airline and am being told quite the opposite. Autopilot all the way man, luckily I get to fly 40 year old C-130s at my other job to keep me sane.

Your airline (is it a SkyWest company?) is wrong.

 

[Soku39]

Oh I'm aware but I just do what the FOM says to.

 

[z987k]

Oh I'm aware but I just do what the FOM says to.

As long as you don't follow it into the ground. I've seen way too many people that are willing to do that.

 

[Deleted member 27505]

I really, and truly believe that is wishful thinking. The only thing that separates every pilot, truck driver, bus driver and ship operator and hundreds of other occupations from joblessness is a few million lines of code, and you better believe that they're working on those lines of code as we speak, as that is what capitalism dictates.

Right? "We" grant tax exemptions and massive corporate welfare checks to the neo-feudalist masters with explicit requirements that this largesse is remunerated to "us" by the creation of jobs for our sorry souls. And every time this is what we get. It's certainly not a new phenomena. The real question is why the masses still refuse to stand, wield their pitchforks and take to the streets. I suppose as long as Walmart keeps the cheap 30 packs and big-screen TVs a'coming (at the expense of souls even sorrier that we) it will remain thus. Bread and puppet, er beer and football, is powerful mojo and will, I suppose, long ensure the eternal sunshine of placid minds. Confronting reality, practicing organized eternal vigilance and maintaining informed readiness is so taxing, especially when juxtaposed with the spotlessness of reality TV, and the fantasy that we are rugged individuals capable of heroic feats.
If Capitalism is about anything, it's about bargaining. But instead of admitting the hopelessness of bargaining in isolation against the trillions of unified dollars at the disposal of the corporate beast, we fall into the lassitude of resignation and allow ourselves to be lured into a sort of Stockholm Syndrome in which we falsely identify with masters and pretend support of for their positions on issues, even when doing so works to our own detriment. We enhance our own misery by fantasizing that we are the lords. It is hard to admit we are the vassals, but as long as we pretend otherwise, we will never organize and oppose in SOLIDARITY... against a machine that can not be conquered by individuals acting alone.

 

[Soku39]

Right? "We" grant tax exemptions and massive corporate welfare checks to the neo-feudalist masters with explicit requirements that this largesse is remunerated to "us" by the creation of jobs for our sorry souls. And every time this is what we get. It's certainly not a new phenomena. The real question is why the masses still refuse to stand, wield their pitchforks and take to the streets. I suppose as long as Walmart keeps the cheap 30 packs and big-screen TVs a'coming (at the expense of souls even sorrier that we) it will remain thus. Bread and puppet, er beer and football, is powerful mojo and will, I suppose, long ensure the eternal sunshine of placid minds. Confronting reality, practicing organized eternal vigilance and maintaining informed readiness is so taxing, especially when juxtaposed with the spotlessness of reality TV, and the fantasy that we are rugged individuals capable of heroic feats.
If Capitalism is about anything, it's about bargaining. But instead of admitting the hopelessness of bargaining in isolation against the trillions of unified dollars at the disposal of the corporate beast, we fall into the lassitude of resignation and allow ourselves to be lured into a sort of Stockholm Syndrome in which we falsely identify with masters and pretend support of for their positions on issues, even when doing so works to our own detriment. We enhance our own misery by fantasizing that we are the lords. It is hard to admit we are the vassals, but as long as we pretend otherwise, we will never organize and oppose in SOLIDARITY... against a machine that can not be conquered by individuals acting alone.

Thing is, I don't believe the relationship between labor and the corporation was always so antagonistic, rather there was a time when it was symbiotic for borth parties (this is where the stockholm syndrome comes from). Where we are now as a society, clearly any symbyosis has been systematically destroyed and an antagonistic, to an almost cartoonish relationship at this point, has been created. Hopefully at some point we can return to some sort of balance, but with today's government and current set of business ethics, it would appear very doubtful that the scenario would ever happen again. My question, is who do they think is going to buy all their consumer crap once they have completely destroyed the middle class? What, other than a complete consolidation of wealth is their end goal? I really have no idea.