Originally Posted by
deltabound
Maybe the FAA did some due diligence and realized that low time pilots aren't causing all the incidents/accidents out there that most pilots here seem to think? Nice to hear they're not doing the knee-jerk reaction, if that is in fact the case.
Besides, the idea that there's a statistically significant amount of pilots with <1500 hours out there flying the line (or screwing up) is largely a myth.
It's not so much low-time FO's that are a problem, it's former low-time FO's who upgrade too quickly without a wide enough experience base. Airline pilots are trained to operate in class B environments, ie spoon-fed. But most regionals end up actually operating in General Aviation territory at small, sometimes uncontrolled airports.
Originally Posted by
deltabound
"Babbitt argued that basing training requirements merely on the basis of flight hours was not the best way to guarantee that pilots are adequately trained."
Of course you need good training too, but you need an experience base before you can properly apply the training. What we do still has too many variables and complexities to try to apply book-learning to every situation without knowledge of what's really going on out there. Anything less than 1000 hours is ludicrous, those of us who got hired at 1500-2500 hours still had a lot to learn about airlines but at least we had some aviation experience to build when we arrived...
Originally Posted by
deltabound
I think he's right. Good for him. Besides, his mandate is aviation safety and aviation promotion, not increasing pilot pay.
Get real. Nobody who has the slightest clue about aviation thinks that bottom-feeder FO pay is not a safety problem...
- Can't afford to live in base => forced commute => fatigue risk
- Can't afford to live period => second job => fatigue risk
- Lifestyle Stress => fatigue risk
Sure, some Americans live in their cars and work three minimum wage jobs but nobody ever said that's a healthy lifestyle.