Originally Posted by
Flyingh1
I am a check airman at a regional airline. I have flown with 400 hr pilots who were excellent pilots and picked up rj flying with no problems, and I have flown with 4000 hr pilots who struggled and almost failed out. The amount of time that you doesn't really matter.
However the 1500 hr rule is mandated by the government, by people who know nothing about flying. There is nothing we can do about it. We just have to live with it.
A lot of pilots agree with the 1500 hour rule, including me. Is it a perfect solution? No. But it's easier to implement than a military-style screening program for all airline pilots.
There are people who have bad judgement but good stick-and -rudder monkey skills...they can play along to get through training, and might even be safely managed by their CA's while an FO. The ones with really poor judgement tend to de-select themselves before 1500 hours (one way or another: violated, fired, scared out, scared straight, jail, dead).
If nothing else, it will ensure that there are two pilots in every airliner...as opposed to a PIC and somebody going along for an airplane ride.
The best part is this does not really penalize low-time pilots...all they have to do is work for a year or two to earn ATP mins before they achieve the exalted status of RJ pilot, not a great hardship in the grand scheme of things