In Part 61 of the FAR Pilot Qualifications For Certificates and Ratings, You need 250 hours of logged flight time along with passing the Written, oral and a Check Ride to get a Commercial Pilot Certificate! You will still need to have an instrument rating as well! Now here is were the fun part starts, out side of towing banners, the only other way to built flight time and its all about flight time, is to become a flight instructor, that is anohter written, oral and check ride- you then teach in a flight school for it could be years! To fly for hire is mostly FAR Part 135 for VFR you need to have at least 500 hours logged, and there will be a written exam, oral exam and a flight check! For IFR same drill but you have to have 1200 hours logged! The 1500 hours it the min fight times required for the Airline Tranport Pilot Certificate! After an Accident in NY, a senator from NY thought it would be a good Idea not to allow airlines ( commuters and reginonal) with flight times less than 1500 hours! That is wear that number comes from! Depending how good or bad he economy is will depend on how long it will take you to build up your flight time, these numbers are the minimums( in the real world, compeative flight times would be more that that, right now a lot more). And due to the fact that its an expensive thing to do, and the first few jobs will pay poorly, not many youngsters are taking up the skill and profession! The economy has been in bad shape for a good decade now- And in order for you to build up the flight time needed, you will flight instruct, and you will be creating at least 20 new pilots on the way to that airline seat, so there will never be a pilot shortage, right now there is a shortage of experienced pilots that will fly for the pay offered! I myself told a Regionl to go pound sand at the time I had 16K in my logbook and they offered me 19 a flight hour! The fact that I was also a little to old at 58, made the decision a no braine! The Bottom line there is no pilot shortage, I been hearing about his since I started back in 1974! Yea, insurance plays a part, along with over litigation- There is a long learning curve here, the hardest part of all of it, is knowing when to just say no, I am not going to do that! Alaska puts a lot of pressure on pilots, pay wise, its hard work and due to the remoteness, you are pretty much on your own! Its getting better but, no matter what you logbook has for flight time, it will take dam near five years of steady day in and day out flying, to really become a good "Bush Pilot"! Maybe more! As for artical, its 100% BS, they just keep writting the same old same old year after year! Flight school use it to get students, Some commuter and regionals use it to complain and not pay anything if they can! A friend of mine got on with Mesa in late 2007, just this past July he made Captain and is now just starting to actually make some money, most would consider it not really all that great since he got between College and flight school, some 17 years into it now! Take this all with a grain of salt! Oh and most Alask flying jobs are very seasonal!
