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except that you pretty much need a pilots license to do it
by bhhaskin 8y ago
except that you pretty much need a pilots license to do it
- tengbretson 8y agoEven if that were true, it's hard to justify them making 5X more per year than actual pilots.
- learc83 8y agoIt's not anywhere near as difficult, time intensive, or expensive as a pilot's license.
- saalweachter 8y agoAnd not nearly so hazardous, for the pilot, the customers, or the public.
- matte_black 8y agoNo you don't. I got a commercial drone pilot license a year or two ago and all I needed to do was take a test. Anyone can do this.
- true_religion 8y agoRight and pilots of commercial aircraft do not make 2000 per day.
- jonknee 8y agoNor do they supply the aircraft and fund their own travel.
- GFischer 8y agoAsk any pilot for American Eagle how much they make... I now work for the travel industry and so get to see lots of articles on how the pilots are underpaid. I also saw an article here on HN about the seniority pyramid scheme (which I can't find now). http://www.askthepilot.com/pilot-shortage/ http://www.askthepilot.com/pilot-shortage/ Salaries have traditionally started out as low as $20,000 a year (in some cases even lower), and have topped out at under six figures.
- gruez 8y agois there a reason why pilot wages aren't more... uniform? it's hard to imagine an captain flying 5x better than a beginner.
- prostoalex 8y agoPilot unions are run by captains http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/unions-and-airlines http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/unions-and-airlines
- gaius 8y agoBut how can we explain a 19:1 pay differential for workers with similar training and tasks? Hilarious. How much did Greenspun make as CEO of his startup? Enough that he could retire and become a dilettante pilot, how much did his workers make?
- gruez 8y agosure, but what's preventing more (non-union) captains from being produced? clearly there's an oversupply of pilots compared to captains. what's the minimum amount of flight hours to achieve captain status? is it a high amount that there's legitimately a shortage of qualified captains?
- prostoalex 8y agoThe “captain” and “first officer” rankings are employer-specific and non-transferable. You can be a captain at United, but if you were to switch allegiance to Southwest, you have to join a new union and restart the career climb. The only exception is airline mergers - some Virgin America captains are eligible to join the ranks of Alaska Airlines captains, out of recent examples.
- mediaman 8y agoIt takes 40-60 hours of instruction time and airplane rental time to earn a pilot's license. Total cost is typically $8-12,000. Once all the requirements have been satisfied, you have to go through a 4-6 hour long oral and in-flight examination. That's just for a private pilot license, which does not allow you to conduct any commercial operations. A drone license costs $150 to take a multiple choice test with 60 questions, and you only have to pass 70% of them.
- godelski 8y ago> That's just for a private pilot license, which does not allow you to conduct any commercial operations. Which a commercial requires 150 total hours. And that is the bare minimum. You're still considered a baby pilot in the industry with that few amount of hours. > A drone license costs $150 And is less than most hourly rates for a plane. That's without an instructor too.
- bennesvig 8y agoYou have to know things about weather and reading maps that you'll never use when flying a drone, bu it only takes a weekend of studying to pass the drone pilot test.
- mbrameld 8y agoThe map reading should be useful for a drone pilot. The "map reading" in a PPL course is mainly focused on identifying airspace, which is critical for a drone pilot. There are apps that help, but you should be able to reference a sectional or TAC and know whether you're legal to fly or not. I would call it a fundamental drone pilot skill. The fact that is disregarded by so many drone pilots is one of the reasons why the license is needed.
- godelski 8y agoYou definitely don't have to know as much about weather for a drone pilot. You aren't flying that far. Sure it doesn't take much distance for weather to become important, but you learn it in a PPL because you have to do cross countries. And if you don't do your weather planning for one of those you can get yourself killed.
- zrobotics 8y agoPlus, all the navigation I learned for my private would be useless for a drone pilot (hard to do much cross country with line of sight). Learning to check notams and read a sectional shouldn't take a reasonable person more than a few hours.