Originally Posted by
Pilatus801
I would like to get some experienced feedback on the 1,500 hour number. It seems to me that it is a significant barrier that has likely wiped out a lot of professional pilot dreams. I see CFIs struggling to log the time to get to the airlines.
I am not here to argue the need or reason behind the rule. But i would like to hear from some of you that know of pilots that simply gave up trying to get to 1,500 hours. It can be a very long, multi year, low-wage process to get those hours. I am currently running into CFIs that are building hours so slowly, they are willing to split time and pay for hours.
It makes you wonder if the Feds will ever look at this figure again and decide to amend it. Is the 1,500 too high? I know some think it is and others think it isn't. Still, it seems like it is a significant hurdle in the career path and it is contributing to the shrinking pool of qualified pilot candidates.
$7.00 a gallon 100LL is as much or more of a problem. We need general aviation engines that do not harken back to the 1930s, that can reliably and safely get 200 horsepower from 200 cubic inches displacement with decent economy on 86 octane mogas.
Then we need a cheap rugged airframe to put that engine in. Something akin to an RV with the sort of instruments, avionics, and autopilots the EAA community has demonstrated can work quite well at a small fraction of the cost of TSO'd instruments.
Then put one of those engines on either side of a light twin retractable, even just a two seater, that is reasonably economical to produce and reasonably economical to fly.
Jump starting general aviation is the only reasonably economical way to bring the cost of getting the cost of those hours down.