1,000-hour pilot-in-command (PIC) minimums. We have seen pilots leaving with well under 800 hours PIC time, which would have been against the established norm a few years ago. It should be noted that while certain Tour Operators Program of Safety (TOPS) accredited operators cannot do this below 1,000 hours, others who are not TOPS certified can. There is a sizable and vocal debate about whether this trend is potentially putting safety at risk, with less qualified pilots getting in larger aircraft sooner than they should just to fill intake quotas and satisfy the bottom line. Of course, this is a broad statement, as the standards and qualities of pilots produced across the U.S. has varied widely and probably always will; the number of hours does not guarantee quality and capability. The FAA regulatory process of training under Part 61 has arguably never been a system that promoted and produced a consistent source of quality, since it is focused mainly on minimum completion standards, with little regard for the process of how to get there and minimal control over the continuity of the training process. Part


78 May/June 2019


141 schools, such as ours, are generally held to a higher standard with more control over content and course structure. Yet despite this caveat, companies have, in this author’s view, been lowering the standards of entry both in quantitative hour requirements and overall qualitative pilot aptitudes due to a shrinking pilot pool.


The flipside to the retention question is the issue of attracting pilots to our industry, and it is arguably the cumulation of the content of the last two sections. On the one hand it could be argued that this is an opportune time for a prospective pilot to be coming into our industry. A “pilot shortage” gives new entrants the potential to advance quickly, be more picky about where they go, and even demand better pay and conditions. On the other hand, potential entrants are more likely to pick other careers where the payback from $70,000-plus of investment is quicker, the career path is more structured and certain, and they don’t have to work as an impoverished flight instructor to “pay their dues” for as long. This is a substantial issue


for my company because the cost of living in Southern California makes it difficult to survive comfortably on flight instructor pay, even though we have taken steps to change our structure by guaranteeing a minimum number of paid hours per week. The cold hard truth is that however much more money we think our pilots deserve, the bottom line will not facilitate it. We simply cannot charge what we need to for R22, Cabri G2 and R44 flying to make the margins whereby instructors can get paid a wage representative of their skill level and money invested. Our industry structure is not set up for sustained success in this regard. We charge too little for training compared to the rest of the world and operate on too-small margins; that makes it difficult or impossible to pay more and become more attractive to people wanting to come in. It should not be this way. The simple love of flying is not enough anymore in a highly competitive landscape to attract the right kind of people to be helicopter pilots.


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