Graying Aviation

The general public has always felt more comfortable seeing an older gray haired pilot getting onboard the plane that they are about to board. There is a certain comfort in knowing the old fart must have lived so long because he's a good pilot. Otherwise, he would have died long ago while barnstorming in the Midwest with wing walkers or while towing banners or something.

The FAA took a different view and as far as they were concerned, there was a serious safety issue with having so many old pilots who probably needed pacemakers or something zooming across the sky. So, the FAA started an age 60 mandatory retirement of ATPs back in 1959. Actually, there is probably some validity to the debate that says it was really to get younger pilots with lower pay scales into the left seat.

Actually, for ages aviation has had a gray overcast that prevented many from becoming professional pilots. When I earned my pilot license at the ancient age of 28 it would not have been possible for me to even consider becoming a professional pilot. The skies were full of pilots from WWII and Korea who had so much seniority that it prevented younger generations from considering it as a possible profession. That has begun to change as the oldsters are being forced to retire.

With aviation there is only one way to ever land a job as a professional pilot and that's by "building time", an expensive proposition. The way many pilots build time is once they get a Commercial license they get an Instructor rating and then hope to find students to pay for their flying time because all this stuff can get VERY expensive, very quickly.

These days there are "lower" levels of pilot licenses than Private Pilot that can be earned, there is now a Sport Pilot and Recreation pilot license. These licenses have restrictions on the types of aircraft that can be flown, where and when they can be flown. The basic standards for Private Pilot have not changed and that is the license that many General Aviation pilots hold. Above Private there is Commercial and ATP (Airline Transport Pilots, the rating needed to fly scheduled carriers) but there are many ratings, or steps along the way. After Private the next logical step is to work on is IFR, or Instrument Flight Rating, (the one Kennedy should have had). From there you need to pick up Multi Engine and Commercial. There are specific endorsements that are needed to fly floatplanes, taildraggers and complex aircraft (More than 200HP, Constant Speed Prop or Retractable Gear). Oh, and Type ratings. If it weighs more than 12,500lbs ya gotta get a Type Certificate to fly it.

Now, things have changed. There is some serious concern that there just aren't enough young people looking into aviation as a career these days. With airlines being run by MBAs (Morons of Business Aviation) along with bankrupted retirement funds professional pilots these days feel more like bus drivers than kings of the sky. Experienced pilots are actually even leaving airlines and going back into the military to fly since the pay, retirement and level of respect for experience is better.

Since I have sons of age I’ve looked into the cost of getting all the ratings to start an aviation career. Self study at a small airport with a flight school would run $30,000 to $40,000. Doing a university degree thing would be in the $65,000.00 plus range. Just renting an airplane dual (with and instructor) these days can easilly be over $100 an hour putting just a private license in the $5,000.00 range. Even the smallest piston rotary wings (helicopters) have always been two or three times as expensive. I wonder how many people have been checking out the ads that have been running on TV lately that tout… "Come learn to fly helicopters".
Come on PowerBall!