Aero-TV Special Series: Understanding The Critical …

January 12, 2009

This Episode Features A Presentation By John Dixon, Director of Pilot Recruitment for American Eagle (Part 5 Of A Series)

We’ve been hearing about it for years… a pilot shortage… a critical one, at that. For many in the aviation community, it sounded like good news… at least if you were on the bottom rungs of the pilot hiring ladder and working desperately to climb your way up. However; after engaging in discussions thorough the industry over the last year and in attending a particularly pointed (and very well-organized) presentation at the FAA Forecast Conference some months ago, ANN and Aero-TV are left with the troubling impression that aviation has a BIG problem on its hands.

The session devoted to discussing the Pilot Supply was, as indicated earlier, exceptionally produced and wholly on target. The session was presented by Moderator Peter J. Wolfe, Executive Director, Professional Aviation Board of Certification (PABC), and augmented by presentations delivered by Kit Darby, President, AIR, Inc, Captain Paul Rice, First Vice President, Air Line Pilots ociation, International, Ron Levy, University Aviation ociation, John Dixon, Director of Pilot Recruitment for American Eagle.

The fourth presentation was presented by John Dixon, Director of Pilot Recruitment for American Eagle. Dixon provided the viewpoint taken by a major company that is hiring pilots now… and will definitely do so in the future. Dixon noted that since 2005, American Eagle’s new hire mean flight times have gone from 1500 hours total flight time with 300 hours of multi-engine stick time to 1000 hours of total flight time, of which 100 must be multi-engine. During that time American Eagle has trained over 800 new-hires, and has made significant changes to its training program to ensure the safety and standards of its new-hire pilots. They have added an 11th simulator training session, included 4 observation flights to the curriculum, and increased Initial Operating Experience from 25 hours to 50 hours.

Dixon …

Duration : 0:9:40


Posted by roy | Filed Under FAA Flight Training 

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