Posted on 07/10/2013 3:26:51 PM PDT by DFG
The 1500 hour requirement allowed grandfathering of current employees for a year, so a lot of the commuters have been hiring up extra guys to get through the initial pain. In the short term it will result in lower hour pilots, but it still won’t be as bad as during a hiring boom. Back in the late nineties some commuter outfits were hiring pilots with really low hours.
“Long trips on the autopilot.”
Maybe two minutes of real flying at each end, especially on the heavies. Almost caused a 747 to plow into San Bruno Mountain on June 28, 1998. They cleared the top of the mountain by 100 ft, luckily missing the 600 ft radio towers.
I am a retired USAF air traffic controller and I didn’t really think I knew what I was doing until I had about 5 years experience.
I figured I needed the practice.
Of coerce I was flying my own plane and made my own decisions.
” Based on what I’ve read, Colgan Air was a rather slapdash outfit; now the entire airline industry will pay.”
Sounds Like British Petroleum and how the rest of the offshore oil industry is paying for their slapdash operations now. Oh wait, just like the airlines everybody pays for the higher prices in the air and at the pump.
The latest use of bankruptcy laws as a labor cost tool has some rather disturbing results.
What happened to Comair with it being shut down and then being used as a threat to pilots at other carriers to take concessions, and at Pinnicle recently, with pay cuts tied to job security, now is being used by every other “Regional” management to attempt to slash pay of pilots across the industry, ironically in the face of a pilot shortage.
Question; does the average passenger really want the cheapest pilot that money can buy?
Hours do not mean a lot.
Experience is better.
Understanding & Wisdom are what is needed, but very difficult to quantify or document.
Think the hours spent commuting for 10 years on the I-405 in LA vs driving a season in a World Rally Championship car.
True, but hours and experience don’t mean a lot without being current. The longer it has been since your last hours and experience flown, the greater the loss in how sharp you are. After a long vacation of a couple weeks I can definitely tell how I am not “up to speed” until a few flights are flown.
That would help, but that's not what the FAA did, is it?
The Colgan captain had an inordinate number of failures throughout his career. A normal number of failures would be one on an initial CFI and maybe one other. More than that makes a trend.
Me >That would help, but that's not what the FAA did, is it?
USN >The Colgan captain had an inordinate number of failures throughout his career. A normal number of failures would be one on an initial CFI and maybe one other. More than that makes a trend.
Did -- or did not, the FAA order restrictions based on flight hours?
Did -- or did not, the FAA ignore the number of down-checks a pilot can accumulate?
You are correct. 1500 hours won't stop anything. It will make it harder to get into commercial flying.
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