The Luxury of Flight

First off, flying is not cheap public transportation flying however flying on commercial airlines should be kept relatively affordable; however clearly with all of the concern over lack of profitability from U.S. air carriers something must be done. Looking upon the past flying on commercial airlines has been a very luxurious experience but slowly ever since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (Deregulation Act of 1978) where the government lifted control of fares and routing it has been a frenzy for the airlines to compete until prices came to where they are today which are historically extremely low even with inflation of the U.S. dollar. Additionally to reduced government control on the industry it also made it drastically easier for new airlines to start up. Many of these new airlines were what are called today “Low Cost Airlines” which even drove the cost of airline tickets further downward.

So how would I propose we make the industry more profitable and maintain the approximately the same cost? first you can start out with cutting all of the ridiculous taxes (Ticket Taxes)placed on each and every ticket but keeping the actual cost of the ticket (Tax included vs. Tax not included) the same making that taxed portion a profit which would be good, but of course this is not fool proof, It is the companies responsibility to make the pricing decision, they could just reduce the cost that much more and be right back to where we are now, but at the end of the day it is a free market economy and it is not the responsibility of the government or the people to keep these airlines in business, if they want to run themselves into the ground then so be it.

With the cost of airline tickets being so unbelievably cheap in many cases it is now cheaper to fly than drive. There are many reasons as to why this has happened but I can at least speculate about a few. First the addition of regional airlines, in the past there were no such thing of a low cost regional operator, another could be the extremely increased fuel economy per passenger on airlines versus the minor gains in the automobile world, and the decreased wages across the board in the airline industry which is further driving the prices down.

In the event that my ideas about how to fix this mess of an industry are ignored (highly probable) and the industry focuses more toward a luxurious experience I would for see less overall flying total because the demand would clearly drop, a result of this drop would be less job availability for those of us aiming for the airlines like myself, additionally I would expect to see the regional (low cost) airlines either cease to exist or rework there business model to serve the needs of this new demand. These things could be considered negative to some who are exploring the options of the airlines but it would not all be bad, I would not be surprised to see higher wages for airline employees due to the higher profitability that would be attained through this scenario.

These are just some of the things that go through my mind, who knows what the future will hold for all of us looking toward the airlines!

Public Law 111-216

On February 12, 2009 Colgan Air flight 3407 crashed just outside of the outer marker on the ILS runway 23 approach into Buffalo Niagara International Airport (KBUF). Flight 3407 was just like any other flight from Newark airport to Buffalo aboard a Bombardier Q400 (Dash-8) piloted by Captain Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw. Clearly there is a reason this airplane crashed and according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) the accident was caused by an inadvertent stall and was the result of pilot error, they also went on to say that it was specifically the pilots’ inability to respond properly to the stall warned they received (stick shaker) possibly due to improper training and lack of aeronautical experience. All 49 people aboard this flight were killed including 1 person on the ground in the house the airplane struck in Clarence Center, New York.

As history shows aviation regulations are written in blood and clearly this accident deserves its own regulation and in 2010 President Barrack Obama signed Public Law 111-216 otherwise known as Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010, basically PL 111-216 is a reaction to Colgan flight 3407 and several other accidents in the past that could possibly be a result of crew training. Public Law 111-216 only effects Part 121 operations and requires increased safety standards such as: a more stringent training process for airlines, any First Officer to have at least an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate (ATP) which would require 1500 hours of total flight time, and more pilot duty time regulations. More can be seen here: http://www.3407memorial.com/index.php/component/content/article/133-pl-111-216-has-been-signed-into-law.

These new regulations which will be effective summer 2013 has great potential to completely change my career pathway. Currently to obtain a job as a First Officer at a part 121 regional airline requires a minimum of multi-engine commercial certificate and an instrument rating (AMEL & Instrument Airplane) now I will be required to obtain an ATP certificate which instead of being obtained upon graduation it will require an additional up to 1000 hours of flight experience and require myself being 23 years of age (Note I will be most likely graduating at age 20, fingers crossed) which is required for an ATP certificate http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=8fcaa9a25ef98dbf2964a25718f42df8&rgn=div8&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.1.2.7.1.6&idno=14. Honestly, I see no benefit in this for myself to me this seems like I will have to flight instruct or find some other means of accruing flight experience for several years. However, (again fingers crossed) if Eastern Michigan Universities (Eagle Flight Center) flight program will qualify as a accredited Part 141 flight school and becomes eligible to train ATP applicants we all in this flight training program could be exempt from this ridiculous amount of flight training requirements and be subjected to a more lenient requirements, this could be a very beneficial thing and get me on my career path just about as planned.

Personally I think this regulation is slightly ridiculous particularly the aeronautical experience requirements. Clearly something had to be done, and many accidents can be accredited to some of these issues addressed above but I think that these issues can be avoided through additional company training such as the requirement of a longer period of flying with an Airline Check Captain/Instructor with intensified scenario based training on the areas specified in the document linked above. By doing all of this I think many of these regulations can be avoided without compromising safety. 

ICAO Standards

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a United Nations (UN) specialized agency that is aimed to "Promote understanding and security through cooperative aviation regulation" (http://www.icao.int)

As of late ICAO is known to be the "minimum acceptable standard" (ALPA) for aviation safety and security worldwide. Many other organizations have formed such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in the European Union both of these organizations provide much more stringent aviation regulations aimed to further the safety and security fronts in aviation as a whole. In a way this reminds me of something an aviation mentor once told me, "there is a difference between legal and safe". Of course this is vague but applied to ICAO being the minimum and also considered to be legal this would not necessarily make these minimum regulations safe. These additional organizations could be considered to be the success stories in the aviation safety world, of course on the contrary you have many developing countries with significant aviation activity that follow only the minimum.

A few of these issues that ICAO seems to be struggling with include items such as flight/duty time requirements, and flight deck safety measures as well as many more listed (http://www.alpa.org/publications/ALPA_White_Paper_Leveling_the_Playing_Field_June_2012/ALPA_White_Paper_Leveling_the_Playing_Field_June_2012.html#section3-1-1) by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), many of these problems laid out within there article seems in a way to be no-'brainer' ideas that  should not be an issue for ICAO to adopt and put into regulation worldwide to protect all commercial aviation activity. 

This brings us to the next question, How practical is the implementation of these additional standards laid out by ALPA? Well, it seems to me this is just a matter of policy change and additional levels of ICAO overnight. Logistically I believe that all of these suggestions are very much practical to apply, clearly not overnight but with time deadlines to meet for these commercial operators I couldn't see it not working because if they do not comply they simply cannot fly

Bye bye Comair!

Aviation!

My love for aviation started at a young age, I could never figure out what I wanted to do with my life but eventually all signs pointed toward aviation. Growing up I was surrounded by aviation both of my parents worked on the ramp for Delta Airlines, my Grandpa is a World War II P-47 ace and I always have spent plenty of time at the airport. Really the decision was a no-brainer, even then I still had plenty of guidance from my parents.

Currently I would say I have no real career plans other than getting paid to fly something, but ideally I would like to get a very cushy job flying some hot rod from where ever I am coming from to where ever I am going. I know that I am not going to get this job right away so to help myself get there I am planning to instruct for several years (Thank you congress for requiring first officers to have an ATP) and then take a job flying something that puts multi-engine turbine time into my logbook, that is about as far as my career plan goes.

The most important current topics that interest me are the changing of the part 121 first officer limitations and relating to that whether or not Eastern Michigan will be considered one of the accredited four year programs that allow for exceptions to the new minimums. I am also interested in the current change in the regional airline field, with Comair no longer in operation will anything like this happen to others?

44B

44B is the best airplane in the world.