Many of us have long remarked that a family in aviation makes it two generations, and the third winds up as art students.
But there’s a whole new layer of complexities for the next generation of pilots. There are no entry level jobs to speak of, other than instructing. Night freight? Gone, because nobody flies canceled checks anymore. Corporate/charter? Those jobs are often taken by retired airline guys who have too many ex-wives, boats, airplanes, and other terrible choices to support with their 401k alone. The pool of applicants with 15,000+ hours makes applying with a wet commercial ticket to most flying jobs a joke.
Heck, you can’t even pump gas at the local FBO to build a network, as self serve pumps have wiped out that great aviation entry-level job.
Solutions? I got none. Just a bit of awareness that we are our own worst enemies at times. We keep sawing the bottom rungs off the ladder of progression as aviators and at the same time, we cry all the time about a shortage of pilots.