Well, at least you can't reasonably fly 800 hours in 3 months, and no bank (in this new economic environment) is going to sign loans for that kind of money, and granted, rich kids will be more likely to rent their way to 800, but if every 250 costs at least 50 grand (guesstimate for the run'o'the'mill pilot mill), then 150+K and feeding/housing the kids will make anyone that makes less than a million a year think twice.

When Sen. Wellstone's plane crashed that was that 135 king air into icing with a seasoned crew. does anyone know if anything happened with 135 after that?

I didn't know anything about this mishap. Eerie what they had to say about the crew's proficiency and aflying ability.
Paul Wellstone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (paragraph titled Death)

USMCFLYR

This is the sort of thing we get when congress gets involved. If the term "multipilot environment" means experience in multipilot airplanes, I agree this would be great for the pay for training outfits; there simply are not enough ways to get that experience outside of that, by far most 135s are single-pilot.

What probably will end up happening is schools like ATP and the colleges will get some kind of certification for training in a multi-pilot environment with light twins.

The only way this could be good is if the airlines would have to pay for some kind of specialized training program, but we know that is not going to happen.

Or it will push the "low paying" 15/hour jobs down to a Cape Air type environment (Cape Air=Good Company don't get me wrong here), but that's where someone should be starting, right seat of a light twin (402 to 1900 type airplane) with someone vastly more experienced in the left seat to show them the ropes.

Well, I dunno about you, but if I've got 1000+ hours single-pilot in Twin Cessnas, Barons, BE99s, etc., I'm not going to go fly right seat in a King Air just to "gain experience" before applying to a regional for $20,000/year.

At that point, I'd be much more apt to tell regionals to go stuff it if they don't want me bringing that experience to the table. Their loss.

Yep, if you can't get into the right seat of an RJ after flying F-18s (not that you would), well then, this industry is really screwed up.

Agreed 100% there. While the right seat of a 402 isn't the best place to be, the guys who do that for a few months upgrade and start building real PIC experience without a dispatch department to hold their hand. The only issue beyond that is, well, it's mostly single-pilot once you get your ATP and hit the line. How are regionals going to look at that from now on?

Diver Driver, Congratulations on your marriage.

Sorry to hear about your IT job. Let's hope the economy will start to turn around soon.

This 800 hour thing is just putting lipstick on a pig IMO. The regional airlines will just hire 800 hour pilots and add a couple sims to the beginning of the training process that fulfill the multicrew/Icing requirement on the books then enter the candidate into the normal training process a week later. No change and business as usual, just an 800 hour wonder instead of a 300 hour wonder. Remember back in the 90's you still needed 1500+- to even be looked at so we are still well below what it used to be.

Personally I still believe that the ATP minimum requirement would be the best way to go instead of all this eyewash with 800 plus this and that documented training. Anyone can write something into a training folder, but what has the kid really done professionally prior to getting that first jet job is what is important IMO. The ATP would show that better.

Just remember folks, bills in Congress don't get passed because they make sense. They get passed to further the careers of the lawmakers. This is being done to pacify the public who know little about the subject. They know that by the time any significant hiring will need to take place they can and will quietly make subtle changes to this long after it is out of the public eye.