Originally Posted by ZapBrannigan

Careful. Many of your colleagues who started their careers in the early to mid 1990s needed 1500 hours to get hired by the commuters also. Not because it was regulatory at the time, but because those were the prerequisites required by the airlines.

In fact, in 1996 most required 1500 hours TT, 500 ME, AND a $10,000 "investment" to the good folks at FSI for training. If you passed that successfully you could go fly a Jetstream 31 for $13,000 per year. The exception were Piedmont and Allegheny, who both required 2500 TT and a lunar landing to get an interview...

So forgive me if I have trouble empathizing with the plight of those who were burdened by the "glorified and ridiculous" 1500 hour rule.