Originally Posted by
Purpleanga
I get your point. But ATP mins are not practical, not to mention hiring is done by the market conditions at the regionals. The only way that what you are saying is possible is if the gov itself forced the regionals to hire only high timers which will never happen. It's none of their business to tell the airlines how to run their hiring, especially right now. As I stated before these pilots were high timers, the fo had 1600 at the time of hire and a few hundred hours on the q, that wasn't the issue. The people that have any power over this matter will be looking at the training quality and schedules at the regionals.
Why is it not practical to use ATP minimums? I seem to have gotten them without ever stepping foot in the cockpit of a CRJ.
FYI, 1600 isn't what most consider to be high time but it is enough time to experience the real world and as a previous poster mentioned to "scare the crap" out of oneself.
Raising the bar to the ATP level would increase safety, wages, and the profession as a whole. Aviation has needed to get away from this lowest common denominator stuff for a while now, its just too bad fifty people had to die to make people realize it.