Ultimately I see this as a band aid to a much larger issue. Whether it can be seen clearly or not, there is a shortage of pilots on the horizon. FBO's are taking training out of their services, because really its too darn expensive for the local folk to afford.
Even the pilot mill college I went to (University of Illinois) has seen a decline in enrollment in their Aviation program. It also comes simply down to $$$. Do you want to go pay $100,000 in costs, for a job making $18,000 the first year.
Additionally the quality of instruction has severely declined in the past 10-15 years. This is coming from a CFI, the days where the Vietnam vet who brought his thousands of hours of knowledge to a student, has been replaced with a 250 hour kid, teaching other kids, in the interest of "making" airline pilots out of them.
The CFI's of today see instructing as more of a required check in the box, and thus the instruction has suffered. Beyond that, the regionals have become so desperate for pilot's I have friends getting hired with 250TT and a Multi to go be a button pusher in a ERJ/CRJ. Thus the amount of these "instructors" has become a large issue for flight schools.
You all make valid points about someone just wanted to get back at the man for taking their pension, its probably true. But the underlying factor bleeds back to the over inflated salaries of the 1990's. When a heavy captain gets used to making $250,000 a year, and is expecting his $1 million check at 30 years, these guys are having to make big life changes to live on that $150,000:-/
Don't get me wrong I don't see this as being good for aviation. The career stagnation is going to kill aviation from the bottom up. At least yesterday, that $18,000/year was a 2-3 year upgrade to the mid $50's, now.... not so much.
