Once I am able to build enough time, I plan on getting hired by a regional in order to build enough time to get hired by a major. After doing some research although they require even more time, my goal is to get hired at Shuttle America or Compass Airlines. These two regional airlines fly Embraer 170 which are very nice aircraft. Hopefully I wont have to stay with the regional airlines too long, but after the regional I would love to fly for Delta Airlines. Ever since I was little I wanted to fly for Northwest Airlines, but since they merged with Delta, that will have to do. Once getting hired with Delta I realize I am going to have to make my way up to the ultimate goal of flying Boeing 777. Boeing 777 is my favorite airplane and is my ultimate goal to fly one one day. I enjoy seeing other places and especially other countries, so flying internationally would be a dream come true. Where I am at in my career is the very beginning, but is a step in the right direction in order to fulfill my childhood dream.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Career Plan
My career plan was and still is to be a commercial airline pilot. Its something that I have wanted to do since I was young, and nothing has changed. I currently have 230hrs and am currently working on my Commercial Single Engine. I am planning on having that wrapped up within the next 2 months. After my commercial I am going to start training for my CFI, once I get my CFI then I will work on getting my Multi. With the new NPRM for August 2013, requiring an ATP to get hired, I am still up in the air whether I want to flight instruct or find another way to build my time such as banner towing, skydiving etc.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
American Airlines Merger
American Airlines was once the largest airline in the world, ten years later they have filed for bankruptcy and are potentially on the verge of merging with another airline for the first time since the merge with TWA. On November 29th American Airlines filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, that will eventually cut up to 13,000 jobs, most of them being management positions. According to American Airlines they operate an all Boeing fleet with an MD-80 as well. In 2011 American announced the purchase of 10 777-300's and an additional 200 boeing 737-800s both are supposed to be in service by 2012 and 2013. It is going to be very interesting to see how and what American will do with these new aircraft considering they just filed for bankruptcy.
After talking to a ton of American Airlines pilots they all agreed on one thing and that was American needs to do something, but one thing they all were very negative about was the potential merge with U.S. Airways. Every pilot I talked too said if they merged with U.S. it would be very disastrous, they never gave me a definite answer of why, but for whatever reason they all agreed. When I asked what should happen, most agreed that American should merge with Alaska Airlines or JetBlue. Jeremy Lemer wrote a great article in the Financial Times with the title "Rivals say AMR must find merger-or perish". He suggests all sorts of different merger solutions from every US airline possible.
According to Dallas News " 94% of AA pilots are at 12th year of pay longevity. That's the top of the pay scale, meaning that they aren't getting pay raises unless they move to a bigger airplane or move from first officer to captain." The average age of AA pilots is 51.6, and for captains its 54.4years. American is so senior in aircraft and pilots that 70% of their pilots have to retire within the next 7-10 years. Its hard to believe that just 10 years ago American Airlines was the largest Airline in the world, and now there bankrupt laying 13,000 jobs off. No one has a definite solution to fix there problem, from a potential merge with U.S Airways to JetBlue or Alaska, but everyone can agree that something needs to happen before its too late.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
UAV
1) What is the current status of this sector of the industry?
UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicles) are becoming more and more popular with the growth of today's technology. UAVs are primarily used for military operations, but is also used for surveillance and scientific research. The reason UAVs are becoming more and more popular in the military and for civilian use, is it takes the pilot out of the aircraft which is the safest method for bombings, surveillance etc. According to UAV there are 12 different types of UAVs such as Global Hawk, X47-A, Mariner, Predator along with others. The technology on these modern UAVs are incredible. The Predator for example can fly over 220kts at 50,000ft for over 30 hours. That's much loner than any commercial airliner/ military jet. UAVs are in the beginning stages of what can and will be a long and lasting career.
2) What are the issues in these sectors that must be evaluated while moving towards the future?
Since UAV's are just in the early stages, there are many issues that must be evaluated moving towards the future. According to BML he points out scenarios that could cause major issues such as, since there is no pilot in the cockpit what happens if the UAV losses communications, or a loss of engine or power you don't have a pilot in the cockpit to control it. Another issue especially in crowded areas is what about a mid air collision with a airliner, although the UAV has no pilot in the cockpit the airliner is full of people and some of those UAVs are as big if not bigger than a Cessna.
3) What is the 5-10 year outlook for this sector?
The 5-10 year outlook for the UAV is very promising. With the increase in technology, our military is putting alot of time and money into UAVs. A UAV guest speaker came and talked at a conference last year at EMU and said that the current state of UAVs is equivalent to just after the Wright Brothers for airplanes, which is pretty crazy to think about. If they already have UAVs flying at 50,000ft at almost 500mph, whats UAVs goin to look like in the next 10 years.
4) What is/will the government's involvement be in this sector?
The governments involvement in UAV is very significant, it is already implemented in all military use from hand thrown UAVs to Predators the government is very involved. According to the FAA the reason the military wants UAV or UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) is because " In today’s military, unmanned systems are highly desired by combatant commanders for their versatility and persistence. By performing tasks such as surveillance; signals intelligence (SIGINT); precision target designation; mine detection; and chemical,
biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) reconnaissance, unmanned systems have made key contributions to the Global War on Terror." The government and military want to reduce the risk of our soldiers by taking the pilot out of the cockpit.
5) What are possible career opportunities in this sector (be specific, which may require you to find actual job descriptions)?
Since UAVs are becoming more and more popular in the military and civilian use, career opportunities are becoming more and more popular. According to the ARMY some job duties for flying UAVs are "Conduct air reconnaissance, surveillance, targeting and acquisition missions", Planning and analyzing flight missions and Launch and recover air frame from runway. Jobs in UAVs are endless, if you don't want to fly the UAV there are repair UAV repairers just like mechanics for airplanes. Each UAV employer has different requirements. According to Simply Hired the average salary in California for UAV pilots is $89,000, but will also vary on the company, location and experience. With UAVs becoming more and more popular the demand for UAV pilots is only going to increase with technology.
UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicles) are becoming more and more popular with the growth of today's technology. UAVs are primarily used for military operations, but is also used for surveillance and scientific research. The reason UAVs are becoming more and more popular in the military and for civilian use, is it takes the pilot out of the aircraft which is the safest method for bombings, surveillance etc. According to UAV there are 12 different types of UAVs such as Global Hawk, X47-A, Mariner, Predator along with others. The technology on these modern UAVs are incredible. The Predator for example can fly over 220kts at 50,000ft for over 30 hours. That's much loner than any commercial airliner/ military jet. UAVs are in the beginning stages of what can and will be a long and lasting career.
2) What are the issues in these sectors that must be evaluated while moving towards the future?
Since UAV's are just in the early stages, there are many issues that must be evaluated moving towards the future. According to BML he points out scenarios that could cause major issues such as, since there is no pilot in the cockpit what happens if the UAV losses communications, or a loss of engine or power you don't have a pilot in the cockpit to control it. Another issue especially in crowded areas is what about a mid air collision with a airliner, although the UAV has no pilot in the cockpit the airliner is full of people and some of those UAVs are as big if not bigger than a Cessna.
3) What is the 5-10 year outlook for this sector?
The 5-10 year outlook for the UAV is very promising. With the increase in technology, our military is putting alot of time and money into UAVs. A UAV guest speaker came and talked at a conference last year at EMU and said that the current state of UAVs is equivalent to just after the Wright Brothers for airplanes, which is pretty crazy to think about. If they already have UAVs flying at 50,000ft at almost 500mph, whats UAVs goin to look like in the next 10 years.
4) What is/will the government's involvement be in this sector?
The governments involvement in UAV is very significant, it is already implemented in all military use from hand thrown UAVs to Predators the government is very involved. According to the FAA the reason the military wants UAV or UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) is because " In today’s military, unmanned systems are highly desired by combatant commanders for their versatility and persistence. By performing tasks such as surveillance; signals intelligence (SIGINT); precision target designation; mine detection; and chemical,
biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) reconnaissance, unmanned systems have made key contributions to the Global War on Terror." The government and military want to reduce the risk of our soldiers by taking the pilot out of the cockpit.
5) What are possible career opportunities in this sector (be specific, which may require you to find actual job descriptions)?
Since UAVs are becoming more and more popular in the military and civilian use, career opportunities are becoming more and more popular. According to the ARMY some job duties for flying UAVs are "Conduct air reconnaissance, surveillance, targeting and acquisition missions", Planning and analyzing flight missions and Launch and recover air frame from runway. Jobs in UAVs are endless, if you don't want to fly the UAV there are repair UAV repairers just like mechanics for airplanes. Each UAV employer has different requirements. According to Simply Hired the average salary in California for UAV pilots is $89,000, but will also vary on the company, location and experience. With UAVs becoming more and more popular the demand for UAV pilots is only going to increase with technology.
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