Nevets

Here is what ALPA said about that:

Airline Training Programs
Most airlines, which include many of the major or “legacy” carriers and the larger, “mature,” regional airlines, do an outstanding job of hiring and training pilots. They normally require significant flight experience including substantial amounts of multi-engine and turbojet time. However, some smaller regional airlines which may have very thin profit margins due to the economics of the contract between them and their major airline, have traditionally not offered compensation packages which enable them to hire experienced pilots. As a result, they must often employ pilots with little experience and bare minimum qualifications who are willing to take these low-paying positions in exchange for an opportunity to build experience so that they can move to a career airline. ALPA has prepared a white paper on improving future airline pilot performance which discusses training, hiring, and mentoring airline pilots which we would be pleased to make available to the committee.

Some airline training programs, including those at mature regional airlines, are extensive and exceed the regulatory minimums. When pilot experience at the new-hire level dropped severely below 1,000 hours, or less than a year’s worth of total flight experience, these airlines wisely extended their training process and doubled the initial operating experience (IOE) program requirement for these pilots. However, this cannot be said for all airlines.
Economic pressures push some airlines to train to the minimum requirements set by regulations. These minimums were established decades ago and were based on pilots coming into the airlines with much more experience than many pilots have today. Experience allows pilots to broaden their approach to problem solving and decision-making above the technical proficiency needed to fly the aircraft. It allows for the recognition of outside patterns and trends that develop during the course of routine flights and permits crewmembers to accomplish tasks specific to their cockpit position as well as be aware of the tasks being performed by other crewmembers.

Experienced pilots tend to identify more pertinent clues and generate more alternatives in problem solving and decision making than inexperienced pilots ALPA believes the licensing and training methodologies used successfully in the past may not work where airline pilots entering airline operations do not have the background or experience that previous generations of incoming airline pilots possessed. In meeting this challenge, the airlines and other training providers must develop methodologies to “train experience” that in the past was acquired in the traditional maturation and progression to becoming an airline pilot. This training should include extensive and detailed academic courses of learning taught in classrooms by well-qualified instructors.

Screening
Few, if any, airlines tailor their training programs based on their new hires’ past flying experience. The airline industry has seen significant changes – some of which involve pilot demographics – that have not been reflected in our training practices. For example, there are considerably fewer former military pilots in the airline ranks than in years past. The military services extensively screen their candidates, who are generally required to have a four-year college degree, before being accepted into pilot training. Once accepted, military training provides intense and rigorous classroom academic instruction as well as in-depth flight instruction that takes over one year. Additionally, pilots today coming from non-military backgrounds often do not have the challenging experience of their predecessors on which to build – e.g. flying corporate, night freight, or flight instructing - before being hired at entry-level, or regional air carriers. These demographic changes require a new focus on standardization and professionalism training and even some fundamental flying skills. The previous training programs based on the assumption of more experienced pilot candidates will not be sufficient; “one-size-fits-all” training is ill suited to the task.

The financial commitment of training and the historical time commitment to build experience to qualify to be hired by an airline through the civilian route and the considerable time and sacrifices needed to serve in the military acted as a screening process to eliminate those only marginally interested in becoming an airline pilot. However, with new pilots being hired with as little as 200 hours total flight time (much of which could have been in a simulator) and fewer military pilots seeking airline jobs, this de facto screening process that helped ensure only the highest performing people make it to the airlines is no longer effective. Today, many regional airlines do nothing to discourage their experienced pilots from quitting so as to hire lower-paid replacements.
Flight experience and pilot capabilities cannot be measured by mere flight hours. Airlines used to have an extensive screening process that included psychology tests, academic knowledge tests, simulator flying skill evaluations and medical conditioning exams. As the number of pilot applicants declines and airlines become more desperate to fill the positions, these screening processes have been reduced and some elements completely eliminated.
Airlines need to reestablish thorough screening processes, or their equivalent, to ensure that the applicants they hire will be able to maintain an equivalent or better level of safety, professionalism and performance than their predecessors. Flight schools need to implement extensive screening processes for students pursuing a professional pilot career. Regulators need to provide the oversight to ensure that these screening tools are implemented effectively by the airlines and flight training organizations, as well as modify pilot qualification regulations to include much more rigorous education and testing requirements in order to provide a screening process that begins prior to initial pilot certification and continues at the airlines.

Command and Leadership Training
The FAA does not currently require command training for pilots who upgrade to captain. The agency does require that an applicant for an airline transport pilot certificate have knowledge of aeronautical decision making and judgment, as well as crew resource management, to include crew communication and coordination. We do not consider these requirements to rise to the level of command training. The difference between the two approaches is a focus on knowing what to do versus knowing how to do it. Training in decision making, for example, might emphasize all the things that a pilot must investigate in order to make a sound decision, but might not provide strategies for how to stick to that good decision in the face of pressure from outside entities to compromise.

The role of captain includes far more than the ability to fly the aircraft from the left seat and perform the checklists. Some airlines have courses for teaching prospective captains how to lead a crew, exercise command authority, take charge of a situation, and so forth, all of which are critical safety skills that must be learned. They are not simply inherent to being the one “in charge.” Specific training should include emphasis on setting the tone for compliance by adhering to standardized procedures. Other topics that should be trained include reinforcing the skills, aptitude, and character necessary to lead fellow crewmembers (informally or otherwise) in compliance with procedures.

Mentoring Programs
In addition to promoting professional conduct among crewmembers, at least one airline whose pilots ALPA represents has a detailed, structured, pilot-mentoring program. This program provides a wide variety of resources and benefits to new-hire crewmembers as they become acquainted with their airline and becoming an airline pilot. The program pairs experienced line pilots with new hire pilots in an effort to answer many of the frequently asked questions, such as bidding, jump seat travel, vacation, etc., from new hires. Pilot mentors also assist new hires as they transition from the training environment to flying the line, and throughout their first, probationary year. There is also another aspect of the program that assigns a senior captain or check airman to newly upgraded captains once they are online and out on their own. This greatly assists new captains as they become accustomed to requirements for command.
http://www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/pre...-09written.pdf

Like I said, its probably going to up to the airline to do what they want with that information. Just as its required for the airline to get your air carrier training history, they do what they want with that information as well. I guess that just as many people failed upgrade/recurrent training and still got hired at their next job, they will also hire people that failed their private pilot or CFI checkrides. I would only be concerned if you show a pattern of failures and not just a bad day.

DeltaPaySoon

Removed.....

Nevets

Is that HR 3371 ‘‘Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009”, or HR 915 "Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2009"?

Cactusone

Isn't that from the 2009 FAA reauthorization bill?

Whacker77

As has almost always been the case, government regulations will probably be overkill. That's the history anyway. I'm all for higher standards, although I think the training requirments at regionals are quite high, but I hope the industry doesn't lay down and play dead on this. Setting a somewhat arbitrary level of required hours or using any checkride failure as a barrier to entry or promotion could come back and bite airlines in the rear.

Theonemarine

So is this saying it will or could take up to 18 months for all of this stuff to pass? Or can the FAA change the regs while the studies are being conducted?

dwightkschrute

so a base pay increase was discussed as well riiiiight?

deltabound

Interesting if true. It's going to get much, much tougher to get the time needed to be an airline pilot. As I understand it, in the not-too-distant past time either was built in the military or ferrying checks around in the middle of the night. The former stream is much smaller and shrinking, the latter is a thing of the past.

I have to say that a pilot with 1500 hours of pattern work and stall recovery as an instructor isn't materially any more valuable to an airline than one who's done it for 500. There's only so much you can learn in a Cessna.

While at one point this would probably mean higher pilot salaries when the fabled next "pilot hiring bonanza" takes place, I think the regionals are about to shrink permanently and in a big way. 10-20 years from now this could lead to significant pilot shortages and higher wages, but nothing in the near term.

Just my .02.

dwightkschrute

Everyone seems to be focusing on the training aspect. While that may play a role, albeit a small one, the focus should be on the pay and QOL issues. Shaw couldn't even call out sick because she couldn't afford a hotel. Most regional pilots are afraid to call out sick anyways. I know I am. I'll admit it. I've flown sick before and I probably will again. It's ridiculous that I am in constant fear of calling in fatigued or sick because regional airlines couldn't care less about you. I've never been so bad where I've put myself and passengers in harms way but I can tell when I'm tired. You miss a couple things on a flow. Miss a radio call. Forget some other things, etc etc. I am not saying to abuse calling out sick or fatigued but those little mistakes add up and in the case of Shaw and Renslow all those mistakes led to the crash. You're a number to the company and you better do your job or else. I know pilots hired with a commercial/multi that I'd trust flying over some pilots I know with 2000+ hours who don't belong in the right seat let alone the left one. That seems to be the exception rather than the rule but it seems congress should be focusing on other things rather than mostly on training.

Nevets

H.R. 3371 Summary

H.R. 3371, THE “AIRLINE SAFETY AND PILOT TRAINING IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2009”

Pilot Training, Qualifications, Screening and Professional Development

Air Carrier Safety and Pilot Training Task Force

Establishes a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Task Force that will identify aviation industry best practices regarding: pilot training, pilot professional standards, and inter-carrier information sharing, mentoring and other safety-related practices.

The Task Force shall report to Congress every 180 days on air carrier progress implementing best practices, and make recommendations for legislative and regulatory action.

Implementation of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Recommendations

Requires FAA to ensure that pilots are trained on stall recovery, upset recovery, and that airlines provide remedial training.

Mandates the FAA to convene a multidisciplinary panel on pilot training for stick pusher operations, and then take action to implement the recommendations of the panel.

Requires the Secretary of Transportation to provide an annual report to Congress on what the agency is doing to address each open NTSB recommendation pertaining to part 121 air carriers.

Pilot Qualifications, Screening, Mentoring & Professional Development:

Requires airline pilots to hold an FAA Airline Transport Pilot license (1,500 minimum flight hours required).

Establishes comprehensive pre-employment screening of prospective pilots including an assessment of a pilot’s skills, aptitudes, airmanship and suitability for functioning in the airline’s operational environment.

Requires airlines to: establish pilot mentoring programs whereby highly experienced pilots will mentor junior pilots; create Pilot Professional Development Committees; modify training programs to accommodate new-hire pilots with different levels and types of flight experience; and provide leadership and command training to pilots in command (including complying with the “sterile cockpit rule”).

Airline Training Hour Requirements

Studies the best methods and optimal time needed in airline training programs for pilots to master necessary aircraft systems, maneuvers, and procedures; the length of time between training events including recurrent training; and the best methods to reliably evaluate mastery of systems, maneuvers and procedures.

Pilot Records Database

Creates a Pilot Records Database, within 90 days, to provide airlines with fast, electronic access to a pilot’s comprehensive record.

Information included in the database will include pilot’s licenses, aircraft ratings, check rides, Notices of Disapproval and other flight proficiency tests.

FAA will maintain the database and airlines will be able to access the database for hiring purposes only.

Fatigue

Flight and Duty Time Rule: Directs the FAA to update and implement new pilot flight and duty time rules and fatigue risk management plans within one year to more adequately track scientific research in the field of fatigue.

Fatigue Risk Management Systems: Requires air carriers, within 90 days, to create fatigue risk management systems approved by FAA to proactively mitigate pilot fatigue.

Commuting Study: Studies the impact of pilot commuting on fatigue and provides preliminary results after four months to the FAA to be considered as part of the flight and duty time rulemaking.

Voluntary Safety Programs

ASAP and FOQA: Directs the FAA to develop and implement a plan to facilitate the establishment of an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) and a Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) program by all commercial airlines and their unions.

Report: Requires FAA to report on ASAP, FOQA, Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA), and Advanced Qualification Program (AQP), which will include: an analysis of which airlines are using the programs or if they are using something comparable that achieves similar safety goals; how FAA will expand the use of the programs; and how FAA is using data from the programs as safety analysis and oversight tools for aviation safety inspectors.
Flight Schools, Flight Education and Pilot Academic Training Study

Directs the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of: current pilot academic training requirements compared to flight education provided by accredited two- and four-year universities and foreign academic requirements; FAA’s oversight of flight schools, and student loan options available to student pilots.

Other

FAA Safety Oversight by Inspectors: Requires the Department of Transportation Inspector General to study and report to Congress on if the number and experience level of safety inspectors assigned to regional airlines is commensurate with that of mainline airlines; and whether the various data sources that inspectors need to access to perform oversight of airlines can be streamlined into one data source.

Truth in Advertising: Mandates that at the first page of an Internet website that sells airline tickets to disclose to the purchaser of each ticket the air carrier that operates each segment of the flight.

Weather Event Training Panel: Requires the FAA to convene a multidisciplinary panel on pilot training for weather events including microburst, windshear and icing conditions.