Originally Posted by
jayray2
No disrespect and I agree with a lot of what you are saying. However, I'd prefer not to be told to pay my dues from someone who only spent 18 months at a regional.
But 9 months of that was PIC
...Colgan, or Gulfstream maybe?
IF ATP req. happens, (Babbit seems opposed to it), and the next Renslow is sitting in Private class/Day 1 as we speak, what does this rule do to stop him? Pay-to-play (Gulfstream)part135 operators aren't shutting down. Renslow got hired @ Colgan with, what...1,000 hours...so he sticks around Gulfstream for another couple months to get time for his ATP.
Go flight instruct ya'll say, (definitely a great way to learn alot about a subject, and I would never knock it). But, it's not the Holy Grail either...isn't that exactly how Rebecca Shaw got her flight time? The media jumps on Renslow because it's not politically correct to mention it, but she was acting as pm/nfp and PANICKED!! (apparently she forgot all that power/pitch/recover stuff and instead retracted gear and flaps) And where are new guys going to get CFI gigs when this "barrier" cuts down on the student numbers, and Mom & Pop flight schools shut down? Oh, that's right...from the 141 puppy mills who get an exemption!!
Oh...and flying day VFR in a single does NOTHING to prepare you for drinking-from-the-firehose training at an airline! "Flying around the pattern will teach you to make decisions for yourself..." Blah-blah... Ya, that's completely contrary to everything related to a multi-crew operation. That's why we have all that touchy-feely Dr. Phil C.R.M. training. Strictly BECAUSE you won't be making decisions by yourself, 99.9% of the time, (unless the Capt. keels over).
The answer (IMO) is a JAA-type MPL license. JAA licenses make FAA ATP's seem like a joke, the airlines adopting MPL weed-out alot of candidates, and from day one, the brightest get trained in a multi-crew environment to the carrier's standards.