Maybe so, but some of the most highly skilled and well trained as well!!!
As an example, do you think the colgan pilot would have made it through the first year in military flight school, or would he have been chipping paint of the side of some battle wagon in Guam?
Dunno about the Colgan pilot, wouldn’t be responsible to make an opinion on a pilot who’s skills / background / training I really don’t know about other then the brief glimpse I have seen on news networks, but I will say, the training I have been through, I know I would not have made the cut based on my training experience.
But you are bringing home my point, the best of the best are not necessarily the best paid when in reality, for what our military folks do, you would think they would be paid better then the airline pilots. My thoughts anyway…
You also have to factor in the FREE training…“You will be receiving a flight education valued at over one million dollars, but, before you get sell what we teach you over at UNITED AIRLINES, you got to give the Navy six years of your life” PS Name the flick
Ahh, free to the trainee, but the trainer, the top gunner, how much are they paid? Probably less then the airline pilot?
Officer and the Gentleman.
Yes, but they all received the training that they are giving.
The Colgan accident was tragic, but a bad call or series of bad calls has happened before and will happen again, to students, private, instrument, commercial, ATP, military, drug runners, crop dusters, helos, balloons, gliders, EVERYONE. It’s human nature. At 160 KTS on approach in bad weather, a 16 hour duty day (fictional, not claiming to be the case in the Colgan accident) and other human factors have and will again take hold. It sucks and we do what we can to prevent it.
All it takes is a quick look through NTSB reports to something as simple as fuel starvation to see that judgement calls gone bad happen to ALL of us. Not just the low time private guy, but there are manythousand hour pilots, military pilots, and this is just fuel starvation, not anything that requires serious thought. Human error will ALWAYS play a part, and while experience may help combat it, it won’t always rid us of it. The best experience of the experienced military pilots was probably gained in some pretty hairy situations that could’ve had bad outcomes but didn’t, and that’s probably the case for everyone else for that matter, but accidents and bad calls will always be a part.
I remember the original Jet America. One of the worst experiences I ever had flying was with them. In September '84 or '85, I flew to Dallas in, IIRC, an older 727, from Long Beach. Other than being late, nothing out of the ordinary on the flight to Dallas. Coming back, however, what a nightmare.
The flight I was supposed to be on from Dallas back to Long Beach originated in St. Louis. It was seven hours late. During that seven hour waitt, we were told we could try and get a seat with someone else at no extra cost to us. It was a busy Labor Day weekend, and most flights were full. The ones that weren’t, once they heard we were Jet America passengers, refused to help. Braniff, in particular, their agent actually laughed loud and long when he found out we were Jet America.
Finally, the plane gets into DFW. It pulls up to the gate, we get in, and it pulls out again. The plane wasn’t at the gate long enough to do anything else other than figuratively pull up to the curb, we jump in, and off we go. Once inside, I ask my new seat mate what happened. She said “it was something to do with the flaps, or wings, or something”. Whatever it was, on take off, rather than a straight climb, we would veer left, then veer right, almost all the way to altitude.
Once we were level, the flight was uneventful until we started our descent into Long Beach. Rather than a gradual descent, we would take steep dives, then level, then another dive, then level off. The plane shook, the cabin lights would go on and off, and we all were rather nervous.
Meanwhile, I had a friend waiting to pick me up. Apparently, there was an announcement at LGB that anyone waiting for my flight should wait in a separate area. Emergency equipment was brought out and waiting on the runway, foam at the ready, for our landing. We were told NONE of this on board. However, despite the rough descent and approach, we landed without incident. Once I met up with my friend, I found out about all the other stuff.
So, this new airline will have to forgive me if I never, ever, get within three or four states of one of their planes, if I can help it. Out of any name they could pick, they pick this one. I suppose Titanic Airlines would have been in poor taste.
I talked to a friend of mine who works over at PIE, he said don’t bother looking at these guys. “They are a paper airlie”. They are trying to get Miami Air to fly the routes they have laid out…someone in here probably knew that so dami excuse me for not knowing sooner 
We’ll see.
After the SkyBus debacle, why would anyone in their right mind even consider believing this guy?
Well, in the recent economy, it takes a while for an airline to gain profitablity, like any business. Skybus might have worked if given more time. Though I don’t think the future economy will be one that JetAmerica can survive with. I still hold my belief that one more airline will fail before the airline industry stabilizes.
Why would you punish a new airline named JetAmerica who bears no relationship whatsoever with the original one except the name?
JetAmerica (if it ever gets started) will be successful for probably the first…ill give it two months of service, then it will just go the way of Independence Air and Virgin America. You CAN NOT be a successful airline and have fares lower than 50 dollars a seat unless you’re flying in Cessna 172’s because you will just be spending more money than you’re making. Less people are flying because of the bad economy, you will have to pay for fuel, maintence costs, pilot wages, flight attendant wages and so forth and you just can’t do it for under 50 bucks a seat. It’s a bad idea and a waste of money. If Mr. Branson couldn’t pull it off with Virgin America than this guy wont be able to do it with JetAmerica. If I were him, I would invest my money with a small commuter service like Cape Air or Kenmore Air.
But hey, what do I know?
Admittedly, it’s a personal thing, a quirk if you will, but also goes to the judgment of the owner of the new airline. By most accounts here (and I don’t profess to be any kind of expert), it will be hard enough to make this business successful. Given that, he (or they, who knows) picks a name that once belonged to a dud of an airline in the 80’s? I’ve always wondered why someone hasn’t named an airline “Jet There”. Sounds a lot like “Get There”, is certainly a descriptive name like “Jet America” and could cause a lot more buzz and conversation than one that’s been used (unsuccessfully) before.
Virgin America is gone ? I’ve been away…
I meant Skybus… but I thought they were a partner of VA.
Skybus leased aircraft from Virgin America, that was the extent of their relationship.
JetAmerica is essentially a scam set up to squeeze marketing dollars from these struggling regional airports. They’ll get their checks, fly the routes for a few months (largely empty) and shut down in the fall.
Thanks for clearing that up for me… yes, I agree thats what will happen to them. If I was starting up a new airline service though, I would fly small regional jets or commuter turbo-props to service the small airports Mesa Airlines ditched. I have a friend that lives in city of about 40,000 and he said that he now has to make a two hour drive to the nearest commercially serviced airport because Mesa pulled the plug on operations there.
That’s what Great Lakes is doing. They have picked up the majority of the EAS flying that Air Midwest dropped.
Great Lakes has real cost advantages because of their large size that spreads the cost out over more aircraft and crew and the fact that they have extensive code share agreements with UA and US.
What airport does your friend live near?
he lives down near Arkadelphia, AR and flew out of KHOT (Hot Springs) now he has to go to KLIT (Little Rock)