Originally Posted by Vito

The genesis of this issue was the Colgan crash and the F/O's lack of cold weather flying experience as attested by the cockpit CVR and some of her actions during the accident (Lots of blame on the Captain too) I guess congress and the FAA were painted in a corner and this requirement is the result. I'd argue, as others here have said that its more important to experience real world weather extremes than any classroom academics, but thats fodder for another thread. I will say from my own personal experience flying both civilian and military, that the huge difference between the two, outside of the obvious aspects of military flying like formation, air-refueling etc is that in the military our exposure to emergency training is on a monthly basis, and multiple times per month at that, whereas in my civilian job I see EP's once a year on my checkride. That is a huge difference. I'd argue a better option than imposing an arbitrary 1500 hour rule would be mandatory, non-checkride EP training more often. An example, I fly C-17's and we do a two-day sim every quarter where we are bombarded with all kinds of EP's, including multiple system malfunctions. They will simulate a missile strike that knocks out the #4 engine, while fuel is pouring out of the #2 and #3 engines with an associated hydraulic and electrical issue to deal with on top of the smoke etc etc...way more intense and much better training than your garden variety V-1 cut at the airline...
YMMV,
Vito