I'm not against the 1500 hour/atp rule per se, but my question is, how are newer pilots supposed to get there? (I know I’ll get a lot of snide remarks to instruct, banner tow, etc, etc.) But hours are even harder to get then they were several years ago. The number of students has dropped drastically, and other non-instructing time building options have dried up with increasing fuel prices. Example: I don’t know how many pilots have told me to go fly checks to build time -well they don’t fly bank checks anymore that’s all electronic.

In adddition to the declining number of students, cfi wages are worse than they were in the past –a lot of places pay only $10-15, even as low as $7 or 8. I like instructing and don’t have a problem with doing that, but I’m lucky if I get 30 or 35 hours in a month at $17/hr (sadly that is a decent cfi wage these days) and after working a second job been taking home less than $1000 per month. Living on that is simply not sustainable. I’m not sure if it is financially possible to get to 1500 hours, and then probably instructing until at least 2000-2500+ hours to get the 500 XC for the ATP, AND then shelling out a few more thousand to rent a plane and pay a DPE to actually get the ATP cert. Bannertowing and diver driving could help build TT faster, but will not help with the 500 XC which will be harder to get than getting to the 1500 hour TT point.