4 ms·

Yeah, but do I learn more from a program of study at a private flight school, or from that plus having grown up flying the plane my folks bought when I was five

Yeah, but do I learn more from a program of study at a private flight school, or from that plus having grown up flying the plane my folks bought when I was five, because it was that or a speedboat and Mom doesn't trust the water? Not that this is me - if nothing else, you probably can't get my mom into an aircraft even at gunpoint - but it is more like the question that wants to be considered here.

nradov 5y ago
I'm not sure what you're asking? There are a few commercial airline pilots whose parents owned airplanes, but those are rare. Most got their required flight hours either in the military, or by training in private flight schools and then working as flight instructors themselves.
- d110af5ccf 5y ago
  > training in private flight schools and then working as flight instructors themselves Who attends those private flight schools? Unaffordable aircraft obviously won't improve things and seem quite likely to make things worse.
  - throwanem 5y ago
    I believe the "bootcamp followed by effective indenture" model has been widely favored among the regional airlines that act as feeders for the big players, dating back well before the software industry first happened upon it. If I recall correctly, Patrick "Ask the Pilot" Smith has had some things to say based on his own experience here. In any case, whether or not that model is actively used today, I would be entirely unsurprised to see it spread widely in the next couple of decades, and maybe not only in the airline industry.
  - nradov 5y ago
    Aircraft rental fees are the most expensive part of getting an ATP license, but all sorts of people manage to afford it. They get support from parents or work other jobs or take out loans. Midway through the training program many of them get a CFI license and then work for the flight school training new pilots, which helps defray the cost of building up the necessary 1500 flight hours. At some point the pilot shortage might get severe enough that airlines have to hire pilot trainees with little or no experience and then pay them to go through a training program. So far that hasn't been necessary but it's a common model in other countries.
moron4hire 5y ago
Just how high class of job do you think commercial airline pilot is, exactly?
- throwanem 5y ago
  The point is exactly that owning a small airplane has not always been the signifier of necessarily enormous wealth it is today, and that it's worth asking whether that has had a deleterious effect on the ways in which commercial pilots learn to be pilots at all. I suppose the larger discussion is properly around the vast increase in income inequality over recent decades, and I'd have done well to contextualize it there before now. (In my defense, I've had such a day that the early root canal appointment, which played out like something from Marathon Man - not that my dentist is less than excellent, but I'm glad I already knew that because we had about half an hour there during which the least surprising thing in the world would have been for him to ask me "is it safe?" - that was the second most significant thing to happen since the sun last rose. So it's quite possible I am bringing less than my best to this discussion that I'm using to help me wind down toward sleep.)

nradov 5y ago

I'm not sure what you're asking? There are a few commercial airline pilots whose parents owned airplanes, but those are rare. Most got their required flight hours either in the military, or by training in private flight schools and then working as flight instructors themselves.

d110af5ccf 5y ago
> training in private flight schools and then working as flight instructors themselves Who attends those private flight schools? Unaffordable aircraft obviously won't improve things and seem quite likely to make things worse.
- throwanem 5y ago
  I believe the "bootcamp followed by effective indenture" model has been widely favored among the regional airlines that act as feeders for the big players, dating back well before the software industry first happened upon it. If I recall correctly, Patrick "Ask the Pilot" Smith has had some things to say based on his own experience here. In any case, whether or not that model is actively used today, I would be entirely unsurprised to see it spread widely in the next couple of decades, and maybe not only in the airline industry.
- nradov 5y ago
  Aircraft rental fees are the most expensive part of getting an ATP license, but all sorts of people manage to afford it. They get support from parents or work other jobs or take out loans. Midway through the training program many of them get a CFI license and then work for the flight school training new pilots, which helps defray the cost of building up the necessary 1500 flight hours. At some point the pilot shortage might get severe enough that airlines have to hire pilot trainees with little or no experience and then pay them to go through a training program. So far that hasn't been necessary but it's a common model in other countries.

moron4hire 5y ago

Just how high class of job do you think commercial airline pilot is, exactly?

throwanem 5y ago
The point is exactly that owning a small airplane has not always been the signifier of necessarily enormous wealth it is today, and that it's worth asking whether that has had a deleterious effect on the ways in which commercial pilots learn to be pilots at all. I suppose the larger discussion is properly around the vast increase in income inequality over recent decades, and I'd have done well to contextualize it there before now. (In my defense, I've had such a day that the early root canal appointment, which played out like something from Marathon Man - not that my dentist is less than excellent, but I'm glad I already knew that because we had about half an hour there during which the least surprising thing in the world would have been for him to ask me "is it safe?" - that was the second most significant thing to happen since the sun last rose. So it's quite possible I am bringing less than my best to this discussion that I'm using to help me wind down toward sleep.)