What’s going on at United

Greg Bockelman said:
Does AVIATE do that? Who ultimately is paying the bills?
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The student pays the bills.

Aviate Academy uses partnerships with various aviation organizations for outreach, scholarships, and student loans. Scroll down to the "Partnerships" section, just past half way down the page. https://unitedaviate.com/

They are trying to increase the number of young people who pursue aviation and start a relationship with them to increase the chances that they'll pursue UAL when they're ready.

The stated goal is to train 10,000, through Aviate Academy, with half of those being women or people of color. I don't think they'll be able to reach that for the same reasons that those groups are currently underrepresented in the pilot population.
 
In my lived experience as a career flight training guy on the .mil side, the thousands (at this point) of accessions I've witnessed or been involved in training over the past 14 years paint a very clear picture to me that socioeconomics is the largest determinant to getting access this level of the game. The military has a lengthy history of breaking social norms when incentivized by national need, so we've had the opportunity to engage in a lot more social experimenting than most would probably be comfortable with any given day. BL, when the .mil system gives the "poors" within an applicant pool a leg up, they do just as well as their monied or legacy counters.

Back home being a USAF pilot is considered moonshot stuff, and the exclusive purview of Anglo men by socioeconomic proxy. These perceptions are slowly changing thankfully.

This medium isn't built for nuanced debate, and I'm already not known for brevity. So digressing.
 
In the small city where I grew up (as a WASP), I had no role models for what I wantted to do. No one doing scientific reseach. Docs were mostly doing stuff which, while important, didn't seem very creative.

I didn't know how to figure out what I wanted to do with my professional life, until I was nearly finished with undergrad.

What's my point? I had all sorts of important advantages-Supportive, bright, family, teachers, community. But I didn't have what many had in terms of "how to do stuff"-be it pick the best places for education. Network, etc. Certainly didn't know any non military pilots.

Improving access to commercial aviation is important-obviously (and it's sad that I must say it)-while maintaining the level of safety and competence we've historically had in the developed world.

Doesn't seem hard. We can do many things simultaneously as a culture. We have wealth, resources etc that humans couldn't have dreamed of, even a century ago. It's ludicruous when folks claim the US is too poor to do stuff-be it improve ATC, send men to mars, support people wanting to be free, whatever.
 
DavidWhite said:
I’d love to see the gender and race section go away completely on all apps.
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A great man once had the same dream, but our society has regressed sharply since then. I guess it's just human nature to seek advantage in any way possible, but couch it in a manner that allows you to feel good about it.
 
You make the mistake of thinking the missing 40% applied and were rejected. That's kind of the whole point, isn't it? I think I'm stealing the quote (Gould, perhaps?) but the example is "how many Shakespeares died picking cotton?"

There is a massive swath of the population that doesn't even consider aviation, even though they'd be fine candidates. The reasons are many, but the result is the "90 from 60" ateamer is talking about.

2-Bit Speed said:
That's only true if they were (previously) turning away applicants due solely to their demographics.
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Hengelo said:
There is a massive swath of the population that doesn't even consider aviation, even though they'd be fine candidates.
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That’s not unique to aviation. Pick almost any occupation out of a hat and there will be a massive swath of the population that doesn’t even consider it.

So what?
 
ah yes, ye old everybody is a free rational actor and manifested preferences are innocuous and free from duress. No maslow hierarchy of needs in [myth of] meritocracy land...:rolleyes:

There's a reason where I'm from, being a USAF pilot is regarded as a moonshot...and it isn't a cultural or ethnic predisposition to consider flying Air Force jets as uninteresting or unpalatable.
 
hindsight2020 said:
ah yes, ye old everybody is a free rational actor and manifested preferences are innocuous and free from duress. No maslow hierarchy of needs in [myth of] meritocracy land...:rolleyes:

There's a reason where I'm from, being a USAF pilot is regarded as a moonshot...and it isn't a cultural or ethnic predisposition to consider flying Air Force jets as uninteresting or unpalatable.
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So?
 
Larry in TN said:
I'm curious why Republic couldn't fly the approach at RVR3500. Visibility minimums are RVR 2400 with Flight Director, which they have, to DA.

Also, autopilot coupled approaches are not authorized on this approach.
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The charted minimums are 4000 RVR for that approach. You can set company minimums higher than charted but never Lower.
 
Funny how “good enough” is either the root of all evil or “just dandy” depending on which way the wind blows.
 
I think the answer to that was “so?”
I may be paraphrasing. It’s just an Internet forum. As the saying goes “you pays your money and you takes your chances…”
 
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hindsight2020 said:
There's a reason where I'm from, being a USAF pilot is regarded as a moonshot...and it isn't a cultural or ethnic predisposition to consider flying Air Force jets as uninteresting or unpalatable.
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As long as we are not trying to shove square pegs into round holes, I am all for actively searching/recruiting for diverse round pegs in historically under-represented segments and reaching out to those round pegs that never realized that they could be round pegs.
 
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