Multi Requirements Coming Down?
 

With regionals having a tough time finding pilots, I always thought that the multi engine requirements would disappear (Other than having a CMEL rating) in order to find more pilots. That doesn't appear to be the case. Does anyone have any insight into this? What is causing regional airlines to stick to 50 or 100 hours of multi required when there is no FAA mandate holding them to it?

I Don't know of any that require over 25 hours honestly. But I may be wrong

50 hours is as low as it will go due to the ATP requirement. Having said that, you can credit 25 hours in the simulator, so the regionals are taking guys with 25 hours of multi.

I also know a guy who got hired at a regional with no multiengine rating and 0 hours of multi as long as he agreed to get his multiengine rating and 25 of multi time before class start date. He had to shell out a bunch if money and fly his butt off between the interview and class date.

Yes. ATP requirement = 50 ME (25 can be in sim). For practical purposes 25 actual ME is as low as you can have to start training. Regionals will offer a job with less than 25 ME, but you'll need the 25 before class. You'll get the other 25 in the sim. Regionals are not paying for the folks to acquire the 25 airplane hours (yet).

Wait, people are complaining that they have to have 100 (or even 50) hours of multi for an ATP? Ho-lee-fook. The bottom of the barrel has been reached.

You wish. Wait and see.

Compass used to want 500 hours. I don't think to hold to it any more.

Compass has the most inconsistent hiring mins. They have changed it at least 5 times in the last year

Yup.. Back in my day you wouldn't even think about sending a resume until you had 1000 pic multi.

I wonder if he'll break the bank to fly 25 multi hours... or get a pencil and write in some believable numbers.......

He shelled out the cash. I saw him flying everyday. He had mostly rotary wing time but also plenty single engine time and just left a job as a corporate business guy so he didn't necessarily break the bank.

Does anyone know if the 25 hrs in the simulator as a regional new hire would also count towards the 1500 total time (allowed under the up to 100 hrs of Simulator time if part 142) for the ATP? I realize 25 hours is a small number of hours, but for part time instructors it could take several weeks to get 25 hrs flight instructing.

Several weeks? Oh the humanity. Several whole weeks? Yeeesh. That's totally like forever and stuff.

True...........

Yes, it does count.

When was your day?
As far back as the 1960s, United and TWA were taking people with a private pilot cert and sending them to flight school under contract, then once they got the CMEL would put them in the sideways seat for a few years.

I brought a friend to the hospital yesterday for bypass surgery. It was going to be a 2 month wait to get him in because of the shortage of heart surgeons. The last few years few new doctors have been going into heart surgery because, with the changes to insurance programs, heart surgeons make very little.

Hospitals have been going to the government to complain about the extensive training required to do surgery. The requirements are expensive so few will go into the field and the hospitals do not want to pay more in order to attract doctors into the field. If the hospitals have to pay surgeons more it will be harmful to the public. Fortunately the requirements to do surgery have been lowered recently to help alleviate the shortage and my friend was able to get in in only a month!

Funeral is tomorrow. But, at least we got him in a month quicker.

Good luck in getting the requirements lowered to be an airline pilot. I would hate to see the regional airlines have to pay pilots more, which would be harmful to the public. And, keeping things in perspective, we should remember, those Colgan pilots brought the passengers over 99.9% of the way safely to Buffalo. Is that .1% extra bit of safety really worth the millions of dollars it will cost to pay individuals enough to become pilots?

To the airlines yes, it is worth the risk, otherwise there wouldn't be such a thing as regionals. That (.1%) cut on safety saves them billions!

Supply and demand would take care of the problem if the government would merely set the standard and then leave it alone.

The lack of people willing to invest 200,000 to get a job that pays 18,000 is now very low. Airlines rely on the willingness of some to chase the carrot, the eventual 150k to 300k job. There are few carrot chasers out there now.

The airlines have not been able to get the standards changed much, so salaries have been rising. As the salaries rise the pool of people willing to invest to eventually get the job increases. Qualified pilots sitting at home or doing other jobs are given more incentive to go back to flying. Eventually an equilibrium is reached and there are enough pilots earning enough pay to keep the supply at the demand level.

As the last post points out, the airlines can save a lot of money if they can get those standards lowered. People who want to be pilots want the standards lowered so they can get their first airline job.

But the public wants to be safe and the public wants to feel safe. They don't want to be flown around by guys who are working for half as much per hour as the guys who cut their lawns. They don't want to be flown around by pilots who have no experience.

To achieve both we must endeavor to keep the public in the dark. Make them think that the standards are still there while they are effectively removed. If you take an hour seminar on using the color radar you get 50 hours of credit. A 2 hour workshop on crew coordination and you get 100 hours of credit. Build up enough of these little merit badges and the experience requirement is eliminated. The airlines can point to the fact that the pilots must meet the standards or other "equivalent training" and the public is kept in the dark. The politicians can point to the "tough" standards and are then free to get the campaign contributions that keep them going.

Every other profession that requires a license, when the standards are set those are the standards. The industry doesn't go to the government and argue to lower the standards because they won't be able to get the employees for minimum wage anymore.

I see what you did there ;)

Why stop at lobbying to lower the time minimums? Why not reduce atp standards as well? +/- 1000 feet on steep turns, etc. Making it easier than way will help increase supply as well.

Call RAH and see if they will just pay for your multi time. They have done this recently. Im sure it would require a training contract.