Duesenflieger

It's a good sign that ALPA and the FAA are championing the act, though. It means that there is official resistance against the RAA's lobbyists. The faster the regionals die, the quicker the flying returns to mainline, which is good for us all, and not just for the pilots.

JohnBurke

No requirement exists for 1,500 hours of time in a Cessna 172. The applicant must meet the requirements for an airline tranpsort pilot certificate.

Everyone must start somewhere. As it turns out, currently the starting point is ATP minimums. Go figure...for an airline job.

kevbo

You should spend time in something a little faster and more complex. Even a Barron can crowd a pattern full of jets if you leave the power on.

Sam York

I'm not the most experienced and but am by far the least. My opinion formed after being around aviation my whole life and flying for a living the past 21 years is that there is no rhyme or reason to it.

I've seen great pilots with 250 hours and bad pilots with 250 hours. I've seen great pilots with 20000 hours and bad pilots with 20000 hours. That goes for training background also. Great guys from civ and crappy also. Great guys from mil and crappy too. And every combination of hours and training in between.

It just depends on the person and their attitude.

I site my time a a J4J capt at republic in the 06-08 years. They were hiring plenty of 400 hours guys. Some were great, some average and some I wouldn't let solo a washing machine.

In in the past months I've flown with a new hire (off the street) that has 121 experience but substantially less experience than your typical flow or mil new hire. This person absolutely blew me away with professionalism, flying skills, aircraft knowledge, and decision making. Made my job easy.

Like I said. No rhyme or reason to it.

Slick111

They DID see it coming!!!

Congress intentionally built in a 3 year lag between the date that the law passed and the date that it became effective! The airlines, (both regionals and the majors who depend/benefit from their feed) had 3 years to come up with a plan to deal with the 1500 hour rule yet the chose to do absolutely nothing about it,..... until it was too late. And I, for one, am thrilled about it.

CBreezy

Yes, there are lots of professional and natural sticks out there. I'm sure there are many people who would be competent as a private pilot after 20 hours. Others, it takes 60. The FAA has determined that, on the average, a pilot needs to meet certain experience requirements to hold certain ratings. That includes the airline transport pilot one. For every all-star guy, there are a dozen folks to average him out. The rules are to protect ourselves from average.

Sam York

Yeah I agree with you. I'm all for the 1500 hour rule (didn't mean to imply anything else). Just thought I give my input. Best solution to a tuff problem, I'm not smart enough to come up with something better.

Servian

Couldn't agree more. In other countries there's no 1500 hour rule, it's not necessarily about your total hours but the training you went through and strict SOP's. Coming from Colombia where you can get hired with 200 hours total to fly a jet such as a E190, A320, etc I've been able to see that. Difference here is training is longer, SOP's are more strict (FDM / FDA / FOQA implemented). You could have thousands of hours in a school airplane, but that won't necessarily make you a good pilot when you start flying a jet, it's a complete different world.

Sam York

But you still have be able to think outside the box to get the job done some days. And by out of the box I mean out of the box but within far/company procedures and policies. And that only comes with flight time in my opinion.

Servian

Agree as well. However I'd rather be in an airplane with a pilot that went through good training and has a lot of experience in that particular airplane or at least flying that kind of airplanes. Sometimes it shocks me how they talk about the 1500 hour rule like it fixed everything but still allow companies to upgrade first officers within a year of flying a particular airplane (with no jet experience before). I do respect CFI's and their path to the airlines, but I just disagree with how people don't have any airline or jet experience and still are looking for the regional that will give them the fastest upgrade. I think they could put a 5000 hour rule or you name it but if you upgrade a first officer with only a thousand hours of a jet and basically flying for an airline, that's more dangerous than a new first officer flying a jet with only 200 hours... this guy will learn from experienced captains and will take him many years and hours in order to take the left seat. Just my opinion on the 1500 hour rule but whatever works... and like it was said before, it works for us pilots (better benefits, increasing salaries, job opportunities, etc)