From the editor: Trickle-down shortages

You’ll read the gory details in an upcoming issue. What struck me was that the Simcom facility had only six full-time instructors. This, for courses covering eight—soon to be nine—different airplane types. Another dozen instructors work part-time to fill the demand of training an average of about 50 students per month. Summers are hot in Scottsdale, so that’s their slow season.

Why so few full-timers and so many part-timers? Answer: There’s a feeding frenzy for experienced turbine pilots. Training center manager Gary Santos said, “The major airlines take pilots from the regionals, the regionals take them from the charters, and all of them take from corporate operations and the most highly qualified instructors—plus the big aviation colleges.”

Santos says that often his instructors are offered lucrative trips flying corporate and other big-iron flights. There are enough part-timers who can take these jobs as they pop up, and still find time to teach ground and simulator training as needed.

For those accustomed to thinking of pilot job prospects in terms of feast or famine, let this example of the current situation ease your worries. How long can this churn in pilot employment go on? The travel up the professional-pilot food chain appears to show no sign of stopping, at least not in the near future.

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