Originally Posted by
SonicFlyer
Not to sit right seat it didn't.
Is this an apprenticeship? Or should both pilots be well trained, experienced, and qualified aviators? There’s no downside for our profession to demand that both pilots be Captain qualified.
Despite what Ben Baldanza seems to think, 1500 hours don’t need to be spent in the pattern doing touch and goes. There’s flight instructing (multi engine, instrument, and CFI instructors don’t spend all their time in the pattern), pipeline patrol, traffic, fish and game, sightseeing, banner towing, traffic watch, forestry, VFR 135, medical transport… despite everyone’s desire to go right to an A320 there still have to be pilots willing to fly Caravans and Metros to feed the freighters. There have to be pilots willing to fly EAS in Cessna 402s. If everyone goes to the airlines at 300 hours, who is left to be a CFI… CFII…MEI? Much less to train the next generation of CFIs?
Nah, they created their own problem. Lowering the minimums isn’t the solution. Student loans, grants, STEM schools, and partnerships with universities is the answer. It’s just not the CHEAP answer that airline managers, congress, and the traveling public (by way of low airfares) really want.