FAA's position on 3371??
 

Suprised this hasnt been posted......is this something else entirely. What is your take? I know babbit was in front of subcomitee today correct???



FAA won't back training requirements pushed by Flight 3407 families : Home: The Buffalo News

I thought they had already made up their minds on the 1500 hour rule.

It's nice to hear that Babbit gets it though. It's not just about number of hours, and that a focus should be placed more on quality and quantity of training.

Really, from what I took Babbit just throw us and our profession under the bus to keep getting running us over and over again. The House and Senate want to get some change but the head of the FAA said "change, why change?"

I don't think hes "getting" it at all. I think it sounds like a lot more blabble without actually doing or changing anything. All they're talking about is making checkrides harder, they're not increasing experience requirements or forcing the airlines to provide higher quality training.

Sure people say hours don't matter, but thats when you don't have hours. Pilots with 200-300 hours, who have spent the majority of their flying career under the watchful eyes of an instructor, are simply not experienced. They haven't been out there and handled unforeseen problems, they haven't scared themselves in weather, they haven't had to make PIC decisions.

Regional airline captains shouldn't be having FOs remark things like "That was the first approach I've ever done in actual IMC!". A lot of people say 1500 hours of putting around in a Cessna are worthless, but I'll take any 1500 Cessna flying flight instructor over a 300 hour wonder any day. Those 1500 hours do an extraordinary amount to make you a better pilot. A 200 hour pilot, unless operating under a training and selection process like found in the military or Europe, simply does not belong in the cockpit of an airliner. period.

I have a great idea, if our training can be improved so greatly as the FAA says, why not do that AND require experience? Oh wait, money is whats important here, not safety. Silly me.


So once again, the FAA is giving into airlines. Instead of making a hard experience rule that will shut down no-experience pilot puppy mills and put actual real pilots with some experience and ability in cockpits, he's just blowing sunshine up our rears. Its sounding more and more like nothing is going to change and thats really unfortunate.

While I am not sure I understand how blackbird said it, I agree that Babbitt just bent us over. It has nothing to do with your so called "Quality over quantity" training, and everything to do with him falling for those lobbyist dollars. The airlines sent some goons to Washington and Babbitt punked out, plain and simple.

I tend to agree. Hopefully in Washington they will address the bigger issues of quality and quantity. Sadly the families, and the public, believe that 1500 hrs is some majic number that makes a pilot incapable of having an accident, and it is proven by the reaction of some of the families.

so he wants icing and stick shaker recognition endorsements? well that training will take about an hour. i see no real change coming out of this bill. the only thing it will do is cause more paperwork to fill out and this bill will be watered down to the point where no real training or knowledge will be gained. both an increase in the quality of training and quantity of flight time is needed to grow safety in aviation.

Fail, I think too many people (pilots) are getting shortsighted because they are just concerned whether this 3371 magic pill is going to be a miracle and get them back to work with more pay asap. In this way a lot of pilots behind this legislation are no different than the lobbies. Addressing Quality and Quantity is the way to go...The FAA has it right this time, they are standing strong and not giving a knee jerk reaction.....

Here Mr. I hate the regionals/commuters from way back has the golden opportunity and the position /power to make some real difference in the industry and what does he do? he punts it!! Complete sell out.

Interesting.

Maybe the FAA did some due diligence and realized that low time pilots aren't causing all the incidents/accidents out there that most pilots here seem to think? Nice to hear they're not doing the knee-jerk reaction, if that is in fact the case.

Besides, the idea that there's a statistically significant amount of pilots with <1500 hours out there flying the line (or screwing up) is largely a myth.

"Babbitt argued that basing training requirements merely on the basis of flight hours was not the best way to guarantee that pilots are adequately trained."

I think he's right. Good for him. Besides, his mandate is aviation safety and aviation promotion, not increasing pilot pay.