Looks Like 1500 Hours May Become the New Hiring Minimum Among Other Things:

[Lear70]

What does 1500 hours do for anyone? I have interviewed a USAF pilot leaving active service with less than 1500 hours after 10 years of service, but it was all MEL turbo jet, mostly EC-135. By this standard he could not fly in the right seat of a commuter 121 airplane. But Joe CFI with 1501 hours, 4 MEL would take his place. Who would you rather have in the right seat? About helo pilots where would they fit into this proposal.

Too bad, so sad, suck it up, cupcake, and sign up for another 4 years, get your 1,500 hours, and come back when you have it.

I don't really care who gets their feelings hurt or who might have to shlep it out longer as a CFI or humping the airport for multi time (like most of us non-military folk did) or fly in the military a little longer than anticipated as long as it starts to address the many issues our career has.

Don't like it? Go do something else. I don't really give a sh*t whether you think it's fair or not; this needed to happen YEARS ago.

 

[JumpersAway]

It's always struck me as strange that a pilot needed to go to an airline in order to build up enough time to fly checks in a Cherokee Six under part 135. Bout' time this was fixed. Whether you like ALPA or not, this just bought everyone more leverage, and your skill and tallent just became worth more....................

 

[Draginass]

1500 hours after 10 years of military service is pretty weak. Sounds like someone who was more interested in sitting at a desk instead of progressing in a flying career. In any case, tough. Mins are the min.

 

[Diesel-9]

1500 hours after 10 years of military service is pretty weak

In this day and age, maybe not. EC-135's probably don't fly many sorties and with all the cutbacks he probably got a desk jockey tour also. The military pretty much dictates your flying career. I douht he had much control over the hours he accumulated. Adding the .2 per sortie probably didn't help him much either.

 

[brokeflyer]

Id rather have a 1500 hour freight hauler in the right seat than any regional, military, falcon 20 standards manager any day of the week.

 

[Trash8Mofo]

How about some standards to regulate flight schools. One of the reasons why pilot salaries continue to decline is that there are UNLIMITED supplies of pilots. There is always a 22yr kid with no obligations ready to take your job for $20K/yr. Look around, there are 3 or 4 flight schools on every field. Anybody with $40K can be a pilot. Toughen up on the flight schools and toughen up on the FAR141 standards will not only improve safety, but also limit the supplies of pilots (which will improve salaries in the long run).

 

[brokeflyer]

How about some standards to regulate flight schools. One of the reasons why pilot salaries continue to decline is that there are UNLIMITED supplies of pilots. There is always a 22yr kid with no obligations ready to take your job for $20K/yr. Look around, there are 3 or 4 flight schools on every field. Anybody with $40K can be a pilot. Toughen up on the flight schools and toughen up on the FAR141 standards will not only improve safety, but also limit the supplies of pilots (which will improve salaries in the long run).

I cant find the thread but I said something like that a year ago and was called a communist for it.

I suggested that they limit the commercial and ATP to meet demand. I had my commercial in 1968 for no other reason than to just have it. I decided later that I wanted fly for a career.

 

[Nevets]

How about some standards to regulate flight schools. One of the reasons why pilot salaries continue to decline is that there are UNLIMITED supplies of pilots. There is always a 22yr kid with no obligations ready to take your job for $20K/yr. Look around, there are 3 or 4 flight schools on every field. Anybody with $40K can be a pilot. Toughen up on the flight schools and toughen up on the FAR141 standards will not only improve safety, but also limit the supplies of pilots (which will improve salaries in the long run).

Here is what ALPA said about that:

Need for Stronger Academic Emphasis
The Joint Aviation Authority (JAA), now the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and FAA pilot licensing requirements are both ICAO-compliant. The single biggest difference between EASA and FAA is knowledge requirements. The FAA theoretical knowledge is simply not as demanding as EASA, which has 14 written exams versus one by the FAA, which is a multiple-choice exam. The EASA exams require the student to be tested for 30-40 hours. By stark contrast, the FAA publishes its exam questions with answers provided so a student can purchase them, study the questions, and pass its single exam. Examination questions are not available for EASA exams in such a manner.

The least demanding Federal Aviation Regulations which govern commercial pilot license requirements (i.e., §61.125 and §61.155) specify the aeronautical knowledge requirements for commercial and airline transport pilot ratings. These rules were written decades ago, when there was no expectation that they would be used as minimum standards to train pilots to take jobs as airline first officers. The requirements emphasize weather and navigation, including interaction with air traffic control. There is some mention of aircraft aerodynamics and human factors, including aeronautical decision making and judgment as well as crew resource management. The regulations allow self-study and many such training courses emphasize passing the test rather than learning the material. We do not feel these requirements are adequate to prepare a professional airline pilot. The ground instruction of these subjects needs to be strengthened with required formal classroom academic instruction and more extensive testing and examination.

The EASA-approved training course for a commercial airline pilot tends to be rather structured and rigorous. FAA should develop and implement a corollary ground school and testing process in FAR Part 121 for all pilots who seek commercial airline careers. Testing akin to the quality of the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exams or bar exam for attorneys would benefit aviation by serving as a screening tool to ensure that, in the future, only the most knowledgeable and dedicated pilots join the ranks of airline pilots.
http://www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/pressroom/testimony/2009/PraterTM_6-11-09written.pdf

 

[ultrarunner]

A 1500 hr requirement will put a huge dent in the bridge program model that have been offered in the past as incentive to enroll with a pilot mill. The "non-CFI" crowd may be heavily put off and not bother to pursue a flying career. Seems many skipped this character-building step to get hired on with 300-500 hours.

That's a good thing! The supply-and-demand will finally shift!

 

[Superpilot92]

This is fantastic and its exactly what needs to happen. The airlines will fight it because thats how they can keep the pay low by having an endless supply of pilot mill students. They are getting away with sacrificing safety for the almighty dollar. Imagine that, require and AIRLINE PILOT to possess an AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT certificate before flying in the 121 world!! I think that ATP mins should be the lowest requirement as far as time goes but not necessarily the certificate. If a guy has the time then the airline should give them their ATP while going through training that way new pilots dont have to pay for their ATP.