Attendees and Friends of Women In Aviation Discuss the Pending
Pilot Shortage
As the 19th Annual International Women in Aviation (WAI)
Conference drew to a close, all the statistics pointed to the
organization's biggest Conference ever. Women in Aviation,
International is a nonprofit 501(C)(3) organization dedicated to
providing networking, education, mentoring and scholarship
opportunities for women (and men) who are striving for challenging
and fulfilling careers in the aviation and aerospace industries.
"By all accounts, this has been one of the most exhilarating and
successful conferences we've had," said WAI President Dr. Peggy
Chabrian.
2008 WAI Highpoints
- Attendance reached a new high with 3,320 women and men
registered. More than 250 of the Conference-goers were from the
military, also a new record.
- The Exhibit Hall was the biggest ever with 151 separate
companies and organizations on display, representing all aspects of
the aviation community.
- Nearly $700,000 in scholarships was distributed to WAI members
at every stage of life from university students to mature members
seeking a mid-life career change to aviation.
- The WAI silent auction raised $28,000 for WAI's Endowment Fund,
also a new record, bringing the total in the Endowment Fund to
$563,000. The money in the Endowment Fund is used for
scholarships.
- The 20th Annual International Women in Aviation Conference will
be held at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia, from February
26-28, 2009.
Great news, indeed... but all may not be well on the pilot
front... especially with alarming studies suggesting that there is
a serious pilot shortage on the horizon... one with the potential
to impact the aviation and air travel world in dramatic ways.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates
that the airline industry may need as many as 17,000 new pilots
every year... just to keep up with industry growth and attrition.
And while IATA hopes that increasing the retirement age to 65 will
help the shortage, it is but one part of an increasingly
problematic puzzle.
So... what's happening out there. Is there a shortage? What can
we do about it? How will it affect us all? Aero-TV asked the men
and women who attended the 2008 Women IN Aviation convention for
their opinions, insights and thoughts on the subject... and here's
what they had to say.
Aero-TV Checks Out The
'Pilot Shortage' At WAI 2008!
About Aero-TV: It's DEFINITELY Show
Time!!!!
OK, folks, here we go... we are NOW initiating the first
feature programming series for Aero-TV... we're going to take it
slow, but we're also going to try and be steady about this. DO
UNDERSTAND that this is the most complex media program we've ever
undertaken and what you're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg...
but from here on out, we will be doing our best to educate,
inform, and entertain YOU about all aspects of the exciting worlds
of aviation and aerospace.
If you've been an observer of the media and associated media
industries over the last few years, it's not hard to mistake the
fact that a massive revolution is taking place. Old sources for
news and information are falling by the wayside, having to change
their modus operandi or risk obsolescence (or extinction).
Electronic media and print media are both under the assault of
progress, and the online world has been a cornerstone for
revolutionary change.
We've been ready to go for a while, but to be honest, there's so
much more to this program than we've alluded to, and so we've been
building and planning a massive new organization within ANN. That
said, we're hiring talented new people as
fast as we can find them (a far more difficult
task than we had imagined -- REALLY good people are hard to find),
and we're brainstorming at speeds that would make a deorbiting
Space Shuttle feel like a slug. Suffice it to say that we wanted to
do this right, rather than right-now, and that the development of
this program has been the most carefully pursued undertaking we've
ever undertaken.
E-I-C Note: The
complete feature shown above is embedded in this
story, with most of the slick and useful functionality
otherwise available on the main Aero-TV site (which will be
upgraded aggressively over the next few weeks). The ability to
embed a video on another web page is but one of the hundreds
of amazing little features that we've worked hard on, for many
months now, to implement in different phases of the initial
release of Aero-TV. It is, BY NO MEANS, the only way to enjoy
unaltered Aero-TV programming on other parts of the web... as we
have extensive plans for future functionality, but this
feature allows those with an interest in a specific Aero-TV News or
Feature program to embed it on a different web site, though we
must note that we reserve the right to forbid such use for those
sites or purposes that we do not feel fit in with the proper
mission of the Aero-News Network, Inc.
Webmasters or Administrators of well-trafficked aviation or
aerospace related sites, are welcome to contact the Publisher to
start conversations on how they may be able to leverage some of the
immense power of Aero-TV programming for their sites and
constituency by clicking the I Want Aero-TV For
MY Website! link.
Coming Soon!
Aero-TV Presents An EXTENSIVE Look At All The
Wonders of the 2008 AEA Convention, Takes A FLIGHT Under GARMIN SVT
Guidance and Comes Away Amazed!, And Takes A GOOD Look At
Honeywell's KFD840 and KNS770!, Checking Out the Cirrus SR20,
Seeing What It Takes to "Compete" As An AMT, Looks At The FAA
FAASTeam Program, Updates On The Garmin 495, Flying The Piper
Matrix, Hears What's Hot At Blue Mountain Avionics, Gets Some
GREAT Rotax Lessons, Gets Updated On ALL Things Lopresti, Has A FUN
Chat With Corkey Fornof, Sees What Happens When AMTs Compete,
Checks Out The Latest in Life-Raft Technologies, Checks Out
More "HIGH" Tech at I/ITSEC 2007, Hears From AOPA On Critical
Aviation Issues, Spills Some Juicy (and HIGHLY Detailed) Cirrus G3
Info, Scores A BUNCH of LSA Reports, and SO MUCH
MORE!!!!! Do NOT Miss Them!
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.16.24)
See All