Originally Posted by
TiredSoul
Thats a very idealistic view.
Especially since there’s no requirement for those hours to be anything but drilling holes in the sky.
I know of people that bought their own clapped out Cherokee 140 because they didn’t want to flight instruct.
Look at all the shared time building threads on this forum. Safety pilot “PIC” what a joke.
So you think another 400 hrs in your uncle’s Arrow and 400 hrs of banner towing and 400 hrs of flight instruction magically makes you the better pilot?
Let’s say 0-CFI at a 141 school then 1200 hrs of flight instruction at same school:
Designated practice area’s, assigned cross countries, canned stage checks.
1500 hrs and a ATP-ME and you’ve literally not been out of State.
That’s why a numerical threshold doesn’t mean anything.
Period.
I think whenever this topic comes up it almost immediately goes to the extreme assumption of well 1000 hours in a pattern doesn’t really give you valuable experience or VFR this or that etc. Well there is still some experience gained, decision making and basic airmanship, you are going to end up with more approaches and landings with 1500 vs 250 hours.
My main point is a lot of people don’t just poke holes in the sky. Most people I knew worked professional jobs, lots of cfis, surveying, 91 charter ops etc. For me as a cfi it was invaluable experience I wouldn’t have gotten at 250 hours. I didn’t even know I wasn’t ready, the idea of a RJ was intimidating but if someone offered me that job or said you can CFI for the next 18 months, even the next 6 I would’ve picked the RJ in a heartbeat and I know most of my colleagues would have also. It does cast a net, it does help weed out people, this job is easy but it’s also tough especially starting out. Just basic dedication to get 1500 hours and putting in the work to find the right job let alone what that job can do for you once you arrive at the 121 world. It’s not like 90% of the pilots are just poking holes in the skies on beautiful days to get to 1500. Most people I know don’t have the money to buy a plane and gas even a cheap one! So yes, are there people that gain little to no experience from 250 to 1500 hours, probably but I would guess not very many.
That all being said I would still make it more around 750 or 1000 hours total time with more stringent requirements such as 100-150 multi, complex time, x amount of IFR time, logged approaches etc. That would help increase the quality of experience.