Not to derail this subject, but the 1500 hr law was another great example of setting a rule in search of a problem. That rule wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever in the crash that precipitated it, and while some of the positives that came (by shear accident) of higher pay at regionals, it also has the huge negative of creating pilot shortages overall, and raising the cost of entry into the career to an unattainable level for so many.
I'm bored, I'll derail for a it:
On the bolded, not true. It's a good example in cope and conflating narratives however.
1) The safety canard behind FOs having the additional piece of paper is a debate that stands on its own demerits, but it's a red herring in the context of money, labor pool and costs. The complaint above is more about soft-handed tie-wearers who consider pedestrian work too much work for the money.
2) There is no
airline pilot shortage, which is the only pilot market that matters to the market. Everything else is dismissively regarded as stepping stone throwaway jobs, or the repository for those with "skeletons" potato/whatever the eff that means that morning for HR. And the gross pay disparities across pilot jobs that follow accordingly. The highest paying pilot jobs aren't even the most dangerous nor the ones requiring the most non-transferable experience. That's why it's so attractive btw. BL, just because everybody can't get
the job they want doesn't mean there's a shortage. This is a perversion of semantics by the entitled... and by the "shovel sellers" of course, to bring it back to 19th century grifter America.
There are thousands of 1500hr CFIs whining all over instagram and APC right meow to their influencer gods about not getting a 121 jerb like "they were promised". The Optimism-biased never owned a mirror it seems. These people would refill printer toners if it paid a nickle more for the same days off "promised". Many effectively did during the lost decade. There's just no staying power behind it. Of course, 3/4 of them would also manifestation-of-apprehension freeze/vomit if you had to demonstrate flight control dexterity under stress in all 3 dimensions before they let you into 121 shangri-La. But since I can't prove a negative, I'll have to digress.
3) The higher cost of entry for education is a result of that 2020 M2 Federal Reserve robber baron monetary policy that hit us all earned income class folks, airline pilot or not. It froze many of our lives in place, killed our hobbies, and/or postponed life milestones going on 6 years now. It's not some 1500 hours in a C-172/slowtation copout.
In short, more demand, not less, for the notion for making "easy money" as an FMS operator is the driver behind that so-called grievance. And before people get tribal up in here per usual, this isn't unique to aviation. Tis a dynamic not at all different than nursing licensure on the female-dominated side of the workforce, when they get pikachu face realizing all the jobs readily available are the high-turnover bedside burnout gigs. They're crying about nursing shortages over there too, and it's just as false as it is for aviation.
If regionals still paid pre-Colgan money, inflation would still rekt ya, because everything is +25% thru +100% from 2019 cost basis depending on the asset/commodity class. The children who thought an airline income progression was owed to them because their older brother got one in 2021 for less than 5 years time expended, are just finding out the industry has always been cyclical. womp womp. I bet you my bottom dollar you wouldn't hear the end of it if the FFD carriers still paid pre-colgan money. And heck at that point they'd actually have a bona fide argument for an actual pilot shortage, as these "aviation lovers" wouldn't set foot in a flight school for money they could double as doordash drivers or hospitality workers.
Remember also that hiring mins pre-colgan were way HIGHER than ATP mins, so your argument falls apart on just that alone. And they still lined up in droves for 20K/yr jobs. The CA who killed all those people over Buffalo actually paid 25K
to work right seat for GIA. His qualified formative background before avation? Kicking pebbles for a living as a travel agent and cell phone salesman. I had to research that twice I thought it to be too on-the-nose. And you think ATP for airline right seaters is that injurious to the labor market? lulz. People should know their lanes in life, we make it too easy in this country to fake it, and bystanders die for the entitlement of others.
Now back to helicopters, another sector of aviation that ought to pay better and it's hella more dangerous.
