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FAA Statistics Outline Challenges in Licensing and Careers
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The main webpage for the FAA is www.faa.gov and from there you can access interesting and important news for pilots. The FAA information network includes other sites and pages that are not intuitively obvious to those who come in via the front page.
One such page is http://api.hq.faa.gov/CivilAir/DocList.ASP?ID=33 which provides 22 Excel tables. Among them are the numbers for active airman certificates, active helicopter pilots, and nonpilot certificates by region.
The statistics raise a lot of questions.
As of December 31, 2000, there were 625,581 certificated airmen in the United States. Of that number, 93,064 were student pilots. Over the last 10 years, the number of new student pilots has been declining. In 1991, the FAA issued 82,205 third class medical and student pilot certificates. As of December 2000, there were only 58,042 new student pilots. However, today there are 80,931 certified flight instructors. Not all CFIs are working as CFIs, even part time. Once you get a license, it never expires and what you do with it is your business. The fact remains that there almost as many CFIs as student pilots. Also the number of _new_ student certificates does not reflect the number of renewals or the number of students flying before their first solo.
FAA statistics on the average age of active pilots show a modest increase in the ages of pilots in all categories.
| Student | Recreational | Private | Commercial | Airline | | 1991 | 32.5 | 41.7 | 42.0 | 42.2 | 43.6 | | 1992 | 32.6 | 43.5 | 42.0 | 41.8 | 43.7 | | 1993 | 32.9 | 44.4 | 42.2 | 41.7 | 43.8 | | 1994 | 33.7 | 45.5 | 42.7 | 41.9 | 44.1 | | 1995 | 34.3 | 46.5 | 43.2 | 42.4 | 44.4 | | 1996 | 34.5 | 48.3 | 44.6 | 43.7 | 44.9 | | 1997 | 34.6 | 49.3 | 45.1 | 44.1 | 45.1 | | 1998 | 34.6 | 49.5 | 45.6 | 44.6 | 45.3 | | 1999 | 34.7 | 49.8 | 45.9 | 45.0 | 45.4 | | 2000 | 34.1 | 49.8 | 45.6 | 44.9 | 45.8 |
Note the clear decade of difference between Student Pilots and all others. Does this mean that it really takes people on the average ten years to complete the requirements? It may.
The Recreational Pilot certificate seems to have evolved into a preferred ticket for older pilots. On the Usenet newsgroups, some pilots have said that when they cannot fly PPL, they will fly Rec, when the time comes to admit that they are getting old.
The close numbers for Private versus Commercial versus ATP may show that pilots achieve some satisfactory level and stay there. Moving up the ladder from PPL to Airline is the preferred career path. The reality of the process is such that pilots tend to work where they do and move when they can or must. With proportionally fewer jobs the higher up you go, it is logical to expect that some pilots fly for the airlines while others prefer flying "silent passengers." It does not appear to be true that the "typical" pilot starts out in their mid-20s at a flight school, builds hours as a CFI, moves to commercial, the regionals and then the majors. The statistics suggest that this is a stereotype, if not a myth. For one thing, many ATP certificated flyers work for charters and fractional ownerships. Carrying eight to 20 executives from Atlanta to Denver so they can all make the same meeting is not essentially different from carrying 120 people flying from Atlanta to Denver for 120 reasons of their own. It might be argued that the airliners are bigger planes. But cargo haulers fly big planes, too, and for that, all you need is a commercial certificate.
"Averages only apply to average pilots" is one maxim that may contradict all of the numbers. You can start flying at any age. Achieving success as a pilot, you can become an ATP at any age, whether or not you actually work as a CFI to build hours. If you meet the requirements and impress the interviewers, you go to work, regardless of the averages. |
Michael E. Marotta
mercury@well.com
Technical Writer
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