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I think the flight time is much more important than the ATP.
This is a subject developing in another thread, but I think it deserves its own thread.
I think that if the regs were to change and require an ATP for both PIC and SIC, a couple of issues at the regional level would be addressed.
First of all we have the experience factor. One cannot make an effective arguement against the fact that a 250 hour pilot should not be flying a transport catagory aircraft. Sure the military and some foreign airlines do it, but they have a highly competitive selection process. The first 1500 hours of a pilots career should be spent improving his airmanship as a cfi and 135 light twin pilot. I can't help but think that tragic events would be reduced if pilots spent at least their first 1500 hours teaching stalls in a 152, or flying a baron single pilot through the ice at night.
I am not saying that having an ATP makes one a superpilot. I also know that some will manage to accrue 1500 hours having never earned their CFI or gain any 135 experience. The ATP requirement would just ensure that most of the newly hired pilots will have had a little bit of exposure to the system.
An ATP requirement would also force wages to increase. Imagine if the regionals could no longer hire from the puppy mills. The feed of 250 hour pilots willing to take any job for any wage would be cut off. Those who were not dedicated to aviation would reconsider it as a career if they were not gauranteed that job with just a couple hundred hours.
I see many statements being made that pay needs to increase, and believe me it does. We are never going to see the day that airlines feel sorry for us and increase our pay. The government is never going to set a minimum wage for pilots, this I assure you. The only way to increase the pay is to lower the supply. An ATP requirement is not only reasonable, it is logical.
What would be the downside of having pax flying pilots required to have an ATP just out of curiosity?
Requiring turbine experience to fly at a regional would create a classic catch-22. Where would new pilots acquire meaningful turbine experience? A PROFICIENT 1500hr zero-turbine time pilot is safer in the right seat of a 1900 than in the left seat of a King Air.
Rather than placing the emphasis on time alone, the emphasis should be placed on having regional new hire be able to pass a PIC-type check.
An 1800 hour pilot with lots of single pilot freighter time has proven that they have the skills to step up to regional aircraft safely, even if they were flying piston aircraft, because they have proven that they can manage an aircraft alone in the IFR system. Making them have some token amount of turbine time simply ensures that "pay for time" deals will flourish, and pilots who can afford to buy time get the jobs.
Such token ride-along time proves nothing about the pilot's skill, and is questionable as a means of providing actual experience.
I'd rather have a zero-turbine pilot who has lots of actual.
Requiring turbine experience to fly at a regional would create a classic catch-22. Where would new pilots acquire meaningful turbine experience? A PROFICIENT 1500hr zero-turbine time pilot is safer in the right seat of a 1900 than in the left seat of a King Air.
An 1800 hour pilot with lots of single pilot freighter time has proven that they have the skills to step up to regional aircraft safely, even if they were flying piston aircraft, because they have proven that they can manage an aircraft alone in the IFR system.