I agree with the 1500 hr rule. As someone stated earlier, it is a barrier to entry. That would weed out about 50-60% of the students I had during the last hiring boom. It's all about supply and demand.

The flight schools/universities are going to fight this HARD. ERAU and the others have already started lobbying against this. However, in the long run IF this thing passes, HOPEFULLY things will be on the up and up for pilots, and people with a real ambition to be a pilot will shell out the money, do the time, and get the pay they deserve.

One more thing that needs to change is the Commercial curriculum!??? Chandelles. Lazy 8's???? really? I understand that it helps you "master" control of the aircraft and one pilot who can do a Lazy 8 vs. One who can't....blah blah blah. Keep all that crap in there sure. But instrument skills suffer HUGE during this time. I am mostly referring to career students.

When I was instructing I would try to keep my commercial students in the clouds and on approaches whenever I could. I dont know how many people I had to RE-teach holds too or answer questions like "Do I go missed AT the MDA or the MAP????" The commercial curriculum was created when people still flew those types of maneuvers for 25 cents and hour and dressed like my avatar. (TEAM COCO!!!)

I'm not knocking the old timers, but most entry-level jobs involve more hard IFR flying than 8's on pylons. I am also a firm believer that one should experience instructing for at the very least 6 months, if not to make them a better pilot but to value their life a little more.

However, I have been told (haven't looked it up myself of course ) that the regs are changing for the commercial in the fact that the RG time is not going to be required anymore (kinda weird) and that more instrument time WILL be required. Some good steps in the right direction.