Cujo665

all evidence to the contrary.
No 121 crash fatalities since the rule went into effect.

you make more PIC safety of flight decisions flying a 152 around the pattern than you'll ever make as a regional FO.

Comstsa

So the senate subcommittee has officially submitted a proposal that would relax the type of training needed for waving the 1500 hr requirement and it will now go before the full senate. John Thune (R-SD) is the head of this sub committee. I have emailed all of my state senators and congressmen AND senator Thune. (By the way, most of these guys require you to verify your address is within their district before you can email them... just put down their office address as your address and that'll allow you to contact them.). For those guys out there that are against the 1500 hr rule or don't have an opinion.... I don't think any of us agree that the 1500 rule is the most effective way to make airlines safer. However, it has indirectly begun to solve the problem of the regional airlines taking advantage of pilots in return for the hope that they will make it to a major airline one day (and pilots bare part of the blame for this too.). If there was another solution to this problem of low pay and QOL, then I would say go ahead, amend the 1500 hr rule (although I don't agree w hiring 250hr guys again). If the senate said " We came up with the perfect pilot training plan that will make the supply of awesomely trained pilots abundant and we're also requiring the regional airlines to set starting pay at $50K/yr"... I'm all for it. But that won't ever happen. Regional airlines shrinking and major airlines growing is a good thing for us pilots. If the Regional Airline Association gets their foot in the door here, there will be more changes later. It may not make any difference if you write your representatives, but it couldn't hurt.

CBreezy

Don't be an idiot. You should only be emailing YOUR reps. If John Thing doesn't represent you, don't email him.

Comstsa

I'm sorry, is it against the law to email another representative. Or is just self serving to the representative to only care about people within their district so that they can get re-elected? His decisions in this matter effects me. So just in case the pilots in SD don't care enough to voice their opinion on this, I do. Now, if we were having this conversation over lunch, face to face, would you phrase your response in the same manner? So don't be two- faced and act differently in one setting than you would in another.

CBreezy

Absolutely. I would say the same thing. They aren't elected to represent you and if everyone emails them, it waters down the message from their own district. They should primarily be concerned with what their constituents think, not everyone across the country. They are not elected to represent everyone.

Comstsa

So you would look me in the eye during a casual conversation where I haven't said anything crazy like "let's blackmail the guy so he'll do what we want" and call me an idiot? I'm sending an email. It may not fit in w a theoretical idea of the way a democratic republic should work in a perfect world... but I don't care, cause we're not in a perfect world. By the way, I don't have a state representative that is a member of the senate commerce committee that proposed this ammendmant... does that mean that I'm un-represented? When someone's job effects me, then they've opened themselves up to my opinion. You're right, his primary responsibility is to listen to his constituents (and get re-elected). But that shouldn't be his only job. My primary job is to get PX safely to their destination. But I try to do more than that and make it as pleasant as I can even if it inconveniences me. I would hope that he would welcome well thought out opinions no matter what the source so that he could have a better understanding of the issue and make a more informed decision. I doubt he'll get bombarded w emails about this, but if he does, good! Perhaps he'll find that the pilots in his district feel the same. I'm aware that this whole conversation is a total waist of time, but I'm currently delayed at an outstation waiting on a plane and couldn't let it go having you called me an idiot. But the longer this goes on, you're point is increasingly valid.

Nevjets

Committee chairman and ranking members are open game to emails from anyone, especially if you don't have a congressman in the committee.

SonicFlyer

Correlation does not equal causation

Hacker15e

CBreezy

Except the lack of pilots aren't greenhouse humans.