Originally Posted by TimetoClimb

Therefore when it passes, all the cargo operators will be able to take green 250hr wonders and put them in the right seat of a beech 99, navajo, metro etc and they can legally log to gain those vital IFR hours and move towards 500, then 1200 and then 1500.

Originally Posted by TallFlyer

Having been one of those 250 hour wonders in the right seat of a normally single pilot aircraft many moons ago, what you take out of that experience is highly dependent on the willingness of the person in the left seat to impart knowledge in a useful way, so much so as to make that whole concept pretty worthless in my opinion.

I learned far more on my own in a 172 doing survey than I did in the right seat with a guy in the left who felt imposed upon by my presence.

Originally Posted by CBreezy

You're drawing an incorrect conclusion. The experience requirement came about because both pilots lacked basic airmanship skills. The Captain swung gear at a pay to play operator until he met basic hiring minimums for the airline. He also had a long list of checkride failures. Both pilots inappropriately reacted to a stall. The Captain didn't add full power while fighting the pusher and the first officer, for whatever reason, retracted the flaps without being prompted and didn't correct the inadequate power application.

The theory behind the hour minimum is it required a pilot to either flight instruct or fly around for a cargo operation long enough to gain valuable experience in both the VFR and IFR systems flying a variety of aircraft in all weather conditions. Is a set minimum of hours adequate? No. There shouldn't be cutouts for specific schools where you learned. Credit should be given, however, for type of experience outside of school, as that is where most of the learning is done.

Originally Posted by Nantonaku

Incorrect, it was a total lack of experience, every time Colgan comes up someone has to say they had over 1500 hours when they crashed. Great but how many hours did they have when they were hired? Have you ever been instructing and had a student pull back at an inopportune time? If you instructed to 1500 hours you will have had this experience. Do you think the Colgan pilots hired with 300 hours ever had this experience? The 1500 hour rule would of prevented the Colgan crash, pure and simple. All hour requirements set by the FAA are arbitrary, the bar has to be set somewhere.

The law wasn't meant to increase performance, it was meant to prevent crashes. It doesn't matter what a small subset of sim instructors are observing, are 1500 hour pilots safer than 250 hour pilots? Of course they are - this is the intent of the 1500 hour requirement. I don't see how you could argue otherwise.

Originally Posted by pagey

I agree with this. While 1500 isn't perfect there needs to be a way to weed out people that shouldn't be there. 250 weeds out NO ONE. Most pilots can luck their way to 250 because a vast majority of those hours are spent with a CFI sitting next to them. While 1500 certainly does not weed out EVERYONE that shouldn't be there it does a much better job than 250 ever did.

Originally Posted by MKUltra

I feel like the more time I spend in the 121 world.. the less safe I feel single pilot in the 91 world.. especially vfr... I am a mess.... but than again... I suck.. 121 makes me lazy... and less of a pilot.. my stick and rudder is fading.. my flight planning skills are gone..

I got my stick and rudder, banner, skydiving driving, and CFI... 121 would does not compare to how proficient I used to be.....

That being said, I can operate an airliner as a crew now, safely and efficiently... two completely different things.

Originally Posted by MKUltra

I feel like the more time I spend in the 121 world.. the less safe I feel single pilot in the 91 world.. especially vfr... I am a mess.... but than again... I suck.. 121 makes me lazy... and less of a pilot.. my stick and rudder is fading.. my flight planning skills are gone..

I got my stick and rudder, banner, skydiving driving, and CFI... 121 would does not compare to how proficient I used to be.....

That being said, I can operate an airliner as a crew now, safely and efficiently... two completely different things.