The Dream to Fly as a commercial pilot:

For many young pilots the dream came to an end with the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407. The shattered lives of the families and pilots involved were tragic. The knee jerk reaction by Congress is also tragic. For many log books with 150 hours written in them will close with no hope of reaching the goal. The lost goal will not be due to capability or talent but will be from lack of funding available.
The lack of grants, loans and even donations have long gone away. For some pilots will critique and write: “Do it like I did..get a second job” or save like I did. For many of us in today’s economy and “free health care” a second job is already the norm. I keep writing articles in hopes of changing views and winning hearts and minds. We have a community that can support and help each other. For many it is the underlying belief that all funding requests are a scam. I can assure you as I write this article again and again that this is no scam. It is however like watching a balloon rise in the sky, a dream once obtainable now a far distant object.
I ask each and every one of you to pass this message to everyone you know. A dollar, a quarter whatever you can do. Make this pilots dream come true. Fundapilot.com can and will make a difference. There are actors and business men alike that read this site, and they too are professional pilots who obtained dreams. Like the movie pay it forward, I believe all things come to fruition. Please take the time to again review the Fundapilot.com site. You can make a huge difference.
The families of the passengers on this fatal crash had every right to pursue a change in the current rules for pilots. The impact on the aviation community as a whole will be devastating for the younger pilots and tougher on the current pilots. The new Aviation bill will require an Air Transport Pilots License to fly for a commuter or regional airline carrying passengers. In order to qualify for this certificate you must have 1500 flying hours. That standard is about 6 times the current requirement. Most would say that is great for the safety of flight for passengers and I would agree. However for the student pilots with hopes of someday becoming a professional pilot it means searching for a new dream. For the average pilot increasing training time by six times the current level also equals the same increase in training cost. The average student pilot going through places like Gulf Stream Academy will cost $32,699.00 and result in only 522 hours of flying time. That leaves the new pilot with $32,699.00 of debt and 1000 more flying hours to obtain before being hired by a commuter or regional airline. Will we ever get back to new pilots? Can we attract new talent?