1500 rule, zero 121 accidents so far
 

Has anyone actually investigated whether this is true? Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

Spurious Correlations

A lot of other things have changed since Colgan, including certain training emphasis.

We are now seeing wholesale upgrades of the "fog-a-mirror" generation of pilots who were hired with essentially zero selectivity by the regionals. So the only backstop at all is the 1500 hours...we'll see how they do over the next few years.

It takes a while to reap what you sow with aviation safety, so you can't jump to early conclusions.

But I will venture that at least from a CA perspective if anybody can sit in the right seat, I'd rather they have 1500 hours than 200 hours. Or 400 hours, or 900 hours. Every little but helps at that level.

1500 hours of C172 time does not make you a good jet driver.

That is all.

You're saying a C172 is NOT a jet? Give this man a medal! Tooling around as PIC of even a C172 should give you critical airmanship skills that you wouldn't get slinging gear in a jet. You should improve energy management, ADM, and sharpen existing skills like stall recovery through the mistakes you'll undoubtedly make. All time is not created equal but 1000/1500 is a good start.

You might want to read the rule as published. 1500 hours of 172 time will not get you hired. It's certainly better then 200 hours of 172 time however!

I would rather have the 1500 hour pilot at least they may have a chance to scare themselves a little and gain a little humility, It also gives them some IFR experience and at the level is exponential. I used to fly with the Mesa Development 300 hour pilots and for the most part were fairly sharp. It is just is scary when your FO tells you that was the first instrument approach in actual conditions that they have ever flown was with passengers on board. MEI time is actually more worthwhile.

Ah yes. How could I forget the all important 25 hours of multi time.

In all seriousness I am for the 1500 hour rule. It has improved the quality of airline applicants but I've just seen way too many young kids come through the school house who just don't have the chops to fly jets. Most guys I know who stepped into the regional world 10 years ago did so on the Saab or Dash. I started my professional career flying turboprops and that provided great lead up experience to flying a jet.

It is not a perfect system but it is working. I wish there was a greater time requirement for multi engine to get your ATP but overall I am happy with what the 1500 hour rule has done to safety.

No, but it makes you a better jet driver than the guy with 250 hours in a C172!

The other problem with lowering the TT requirement is, if we make it a wet commercial again the old TT for a part 61 issued​ commercial was 250 hours, part 141 was 190 hours and part 142 was 140 hours, where is the incentive to KEEP or increase pilot wages?

Let's say you have a wealthy ambitious person come in and they can get from zero to hero at a place like ATP. They'll have all the funds to go from zero to hero in 3 months and qualify for the regionals​. I mean technically they'll qualify for the legacies etc, (but they'd be competing against guys with jet time, Captain time...) but the reason we have seen wages increase is to attract talent. If there was an abundance of pilots, or a quick path for someone to put down cash now (borrowed or not) then feel that they'll be at a legacy with a wage that can repay it, there would suddenly be a lot more people doing flight training. This isn't to say we should deter people from learning to fly but rather you want people who actually like airplanes ​flying. Everyone likes money but you don't want to attract people who just want money.

The ATP/R-ATP requirement was not a move made purely for safety. Do I think it's better to have a pilot with more valuable flight time of course, but if we drop back to wet commercial, you'll have guys in the right seat of a jet who flew circles in a 172 for 250 hours. You'll have guys that went through a structured​ program for under 200 hours. We'd all prefer the guys with structured​ training.

When I went through my first airline initial training there was a guy who failed out of 121 training claiming he'd never pinked a ride... but got all of his training from ATP, where from what I gather they pay off the DPE to pass everyone even if they haven't learned what is required in the PTS. He didn't know how to track a VOR. And this was in the days where we commercial was able to be hired, but guys in class had ATP mins as the average.