Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
Or with an autopilot. The presence of an autopilot doesn't eliminate the need for an SIC under 135 IFR operations. The certificate holder may gain a single-pilot-with-auto-pilot exemption under their opspecs, but is still entitled to use a SIC so long as they have and use the approved training program. In that case, despite the exemption, when electing to use a SIC, the SIC may still log the time. This has always been the case.
The proposed changes allow the SIC to credit that time toward ATP requirements, which was not previously the case.
Overall, it's simply lowering the qualifications of the applicant, bit by bit.
Got a reference for this? That's not what the Tarsa and Nichols letters say. The only place where they had this kind of training program was Ameriflight with their ACP, and the time they log is only usable as company time, but not towards a certificate or a rating. So in general, SICs haven't been able to log time based on that.