Saw this post from an ASA guy on another board in regards to the 500 hrs:

"People thought our mins were increased to 3000 total with 1000 PIC. That's because we were doing some searching with those parameters, and apparently that's what shows up as the mins within the system.

We set the default search levels to 500 total the other day to see what/who is in the system, and so now it appears our mins are lower eventhough they're not".