Mesa Airlines is buying a fleet of two-seat Pipistrel Alpha light sport aircraft to help career pilot candidates log hours toward the FAA’s minimum 1,500-hour requirement for airline operations. That’s great news for Textron, which bought Pipistrel in August; the Alpha is a fun airplane, relatively inexpensive to operate, and fairly modern, as light airplanes go.
But the idea that future airline pilots will gain the necessary experience by flying around in the Alpha with another pilot to keep per-pilot costs down is ridiculous.
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
More In Training and Workforce
