An Aerobatic Trainer for Phoenix East

Phoenix East Aviation recently took delivery of a new aircraft for flight training, an 8KCAB Decathlon. What makes this aircraft unique in the PEA fleet is its use: It is used for upset recovery training. If you're asking yourself "what is that," you're in for an interesting answer: In summary, it's to make you, the student pilot, a safer pilot, not just during your training, but throughout your career. Phoenix East, as part of its Professional I and Professional III programs, trains you to recover from emergency situations, safely, in the 8KCAB. This amazing little aircraft is capable of sustaining aerobatic stresses of +6/-5g. The Decathlon's wing, which employs a semi-symmetric airfoil gives the aircraft excellent, safe inverted flight and negative-g maneuver capabilities. It has tandem seating and joystick controls. Not only is it an awesome experience for a student pilot to fly and to train in, it provides safe, real world, emergency training not available anywhere but on the ground in a simulator.  Most flight schools in the world do not provide such excellent training for their student pilots.

Using the 8KCAB Decathlon as part of its training is another reason that Phoenix East Aviation graduates are such excellent pilots and in demand by airlines throughout the world. Learn more about becoming a airline pilot today.

The Global Pilot Shortage Problem

The 10th annual World Aviation Training Conference recently took place. All the statistics that follow are from that conference.

Aviation employment in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will need to double by 2015 and India's will triple to serve the growing industry. The GCC will need 8,000 new aviation professionals a year, but the schools in the region graduate a mere 1,000 a year. And globally, in the next 20 years there will be unparalled growth, with 25,000 new aircraft added to the 17,000 already in service, requiring the training of 18,000 new pilots each year. This is just for the mainline airlines and doesn't even include the regionals, corporate aviation or very light jets (VLJs).

The US is capable of training only about 10,000 pilots each year, with many of them going to jobs outside the country. India has 3,000 pilots today, but needs 15,000. China wants 2,100 pilots a year.

But even this isn't a true reflection of how critical the need for pilots is. In the next 9 years the production of VLJs is expected to be between 2,500 and 7,500. Although certification of these aircraft will be as a single-pilot aircraft, it is expected, at least initially, that operators will want to use two-pilot crews to engender pasenger confidence in this new type of aircraft. Just the VLJ alone could add an extra requirement for 15,000 pilots.

In summary, there is an increasing demand for pilots, and pilot training. Phoenix East Aviation is helping meet this demand by training US and International pilots at our Daytona Beach, Florida flight school.

Airlines Worldwide Buying More Aircraft

This blog keeps you updated on many of the commercial airlines who are purchasing new aircraft. The reason is simple, though maybe not obvious; it is so you, as pilot training students or prospective pilots, know which airlines are growing especially rapidly or replacing their equipment -- and learn more about these individual airlines. You may want to fly for one or more of these successful airlines some day.

Since the commercial aviation industry as a whole is growing so rapidly right now, all airlines purchasing new equipment are not included here; the list would be very, very long, and, frankly, pretty boring. The airlines selected are representative of large and small, US and international.  My apologies if your favorite airlines are not always included.

In the news this month, Aegean Airlines (another fast-growing airline) has ordered six more Airbus A320s. This will add to their current fleet of 21 aircraft. These new airplanes are part of an expansion on their high-traffic European routes as well as for their Greek regional markets.

LAN Airlines has received its newest Airbus A318 aircraft. It will operate on the company's Chilean domestic routes.  This is just the beginning; LAN has ordered a total of 20 Airbus A318s. LAN expects to replace its Boeing 737-200 fleet with the new Airbus craft.

EgyptAir has taken delivery of its third next-generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft. They ordered 12 of these popular, single-aisle commercial jets. Boeing has a total of 2,300 of these airplanes on order for various airlines throughout the world.

Aviation Capital Group (ACG) has ordered 25 additional A320 aircraft. ACG, a subsidiary of Pacific LifeCorp, will own 121 A320 aircraft, which it leases to various airlines.

A Good Career as a Charter Pilot

Today's charter pilots are much different than 20 years ago, when many came from the military and flew Beech King Air or Piper Chieftain for passenger work.  The influx of corporate jets into the charter market changed things. Today a charter captain makes an average annual salary between $55,000 and $80,000 (with some making as much as $120,000), according to a Charter Journal survey.

If you fly charter for other than a small company, your work schedule will likely be five days on duty and five off.  You may even get fourteen on and fourteen off. While certainly not all charter pilots are men, only about five percent are female currently. However, I have read that in the corporate/charter pilot world that the same reality applies as with other minorities: The best of the minorities far exceed the best (and certainly the average) of the majority, because they have to in order to succeed. According to F. Gevalt in The Charter Journal, the women who do work for charter companies "are usually superative."

If you are looking at career opportunities and are interested in aviation, there has never been a time like now. With global growth in the airlines and the charter jet business, it is safe to say that Quality Pilots will be able to find a job.

If you want to be a pilot consider an accredited flight school that can train you to fly props and jets, check out Phoenix East Aviation.

Chinese Aircraft Makers Planning New Models

Chinese aircraft manufacturers are planning to build a number of new aircraft. This is in addition to the ARJ21 large regional jet, which is expected to be introduced by the end of this year in China.

Avic I, which is one of the country's two aviation manufacturing  companies, is planning a new turboprop transport, a new business jet and a new general aviation aircraft. The company's strategy is to build a complete family of aircraft at plants in China. These would include turboprop aircraft with up to 70 seats, as well as its ARJ21 with 100 seats.

AviChina, another aircraft company, is deciding whether to build a new regional or business jet in China, in addition to the Embraer ERJ 145 line, which it currently builds.

More Women Take Flight

There is a growing band of women in the commercial airline industry who are taking over high-profile positions running big hubs, heading airport ground operations, leading aircaft maintenance and managing airline operation control dispatch centers. 

The shift is largely due to the airlines' lessening dependence on the military for recruits and a wave of retirements by men. American Airlines senior vice president of human resources commented that there was a time when nearly all commercial pilots and mechanics came out of the military, and there weren't many women in the military. The male dominance was by circumstance, not intention.

Airlines are now making faster progress hiring women in all areas, including as pilots and airline dispatchers. (Call Phoenix East if you're interesting in training for a job as a pilot or a dispatcher).

In addition to pilots and flight dispatchers, many U.S. airlines have women is very senior management positions. Terri Pope runs the Charlotte, N.C. hub for US Airways. Horizon Air has a female vice president of maintenance and engineering. Southwest Airlines has a female vice president of ground operations. Southwest Airlines also has a female chief financial officer. Southwest also wins the prize for the highest ranking female in the U.S. commercial aviation industry -- Colleen Barrett, president of the company.

At United Airlines 45% of the 55,000 employees are women; United also now has eight female vice presidents. One of those women oversees United's system operations center -- the airline's nerve center for flight planning and tracking. If you are a young woman with a passion for aviation, and you are interested in either being a pilot or working as a dispatcher in an airline's operations control center, talk to an Admissions Officer at Phoenix East Aviation about career opportunities.

Bombardier Sees A Surge in Aircraft Manufacturing

Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier has noted the torrid pace of growth of business and regional aircraft, both jets and turboprops this year. The backlog (orders booked for by customers for new aircraft) at Bombardier's aerospace unit has soared to a record USD $18.2 billion. Net orders for business aircraft rose to 103 from 67 a year earlier, and net orders for regional jets soared to 84 from nine for the period.

Bombardier's Aerospace Division president has indicated the manufacturer will start churning out a regional jet every four days, beginning in 2009.

More Airplanes Than Ever Are Flying Now

There are more aircraft in the sky now than ever before, and the need for pilots continues to be great. Some interesting statistics: U.S. airlines grounded a net 385 large planes from 2000 through 2006 -- mainly after, and as a result of,  9/11 -- but they added 1,029 regional jets, according to data firm Airline Monitor.

Passengers like the smaller planes because in reality it means more frequent flights to more cities -- and therefore more convenient schedules. The combination of smaller jets and more numerous flights makes airlines' schedules more attractive to high-dollar business travelers. So the airlines also like the smaller jets and the the economics of these aircraft. And also important, they are usually flown by younger pilots with less senority (that could be you soon, if you are now considering learning to fly). 

What is meant smaller aircraft? Regional jets are considered those with fewer than 100 seats. Traffic on airlines' regional partners, which fly the smaller aircraft, is up an amazing 196% since 2002.