benairguitar23

I'll come right out and say it, I am currently an Instructor for ERAU and today they had a meeting for all of the flight students about the notice of proposed rulemaking. They printed out the Docket for the students but also printed out another paper TELLING the students what they should say in their comments to the FAA. Of the answers given to the students were that 1500 hrs and age 23 is not necessary because of the fact that "thousands of pilots have entered the Part 121 work force as first officers with less than 1500 hrs and younger than age 23", that the students should say yes to the ATP knowledge requirements but again no to the 1500 hrs, that there should be less minimums required for accredited schools (obviously they would say that), that students graduating from an accredited school should be able to enter a Part 121 job with only 550 hours and only 100 as a CFI, and that 750 hours to gain a commercial certificate is too high!

We as airline and future airline pilots need to counteract these comments by submitting our own saying why the rule NEEDS to be 1500 hrs and an ATP. We all know that the accredited schools are pushing hard against this rule because they will lose money. Well I personally would rather know that the First Officer sitting next to me when I am a Captain, or the First Officer sitting in the front of the plane that my family and I are flying on has the experience and skill needed to fly that aircraft! The Captains first priority flying an airliner is to get those passengers safely to their destination, NOT babysitting a 200 - 500 hour pilot that doesn't even know what a hot start is!

The end of the proposed rule making is April 9th, please, during a layover, sitting on reserve, or when you come home from a trip, please take the time to send your comments in to get this rule to pass. Not only will it provide more safety to the industry, but I think we all know that eventually this will help improve the current state of our industry. Here is the web address to the comment portion of this rule: Regulations.gov

All you need to do is click on the "Submit a Comment" button on the right side, put in your information and enter your comments. Please let’s do this to save the industry from the downward spiral it's in. Just say no to Shiny Jet Syndrome and let’s make all those desiring to be airline pilots work for it the way we have. Thank You!

acl65pilot

Makes sense for ERAU and the students to fight this. No one is going to fork over money for this. We are a society of instant gratification and waiting two to three years to gain that time is not going to be good for the school or those students.

NuGuy

Wow.

What a...surprise.

No, I mean it.

Really....

Nu

benairguitar23

Ain't that the truth, but if this rule passes at least it will weed out those who got into flying just to have mommy and daddy pay for the training so they can start making a quick.......$18,000 flying shiny jets. Now we will only have those that really want to tough it out and pay their dues like we did for the real reason for flying.....for the desire! (I guess making $100,000 a year by the time we retire doesn't hurt either but at least we will know we worked for it)

Phuz

the argument could be made that the individual you describe who will endure anything to fly is equally if not more responsible for the demise of pay, scope, and work rules in our industry.

I would agree that increasing legal requirements for pilot training helps protect ourselves against replacement. However, with the fragmentation of the regional industry I'm not sure that is even the case anymore. Today I sat in a terminal and looked at 3 crjs flown by 3 different operators for 1 major airline, all parked right next to eachother! If any one of those operators went on strike, the other 2 (and surely more) would quickly pick up their slack. With this kind of thing going on all throughout our industry pilots are easy to replace even before you factor in what the street hiring requirements are.

Clearly a multi-faceted problem that has no single solution, but with safety being the bottom line I'm convinced that 1500 hours is a reasonable requirement.

Bill Lumberg

The families of the people who died in the Colgan Dash-8-400 crash have more political power than the ERAU people. They have spear-headed this movement, and won't finish until real saftey regulations are in place. A huge step forward was Oberstar's unwillingness to allow an 800 hour requirement, and sending it back for 1500 hours. That is huge in itself.

benairguitar23

I see your point , that wasn't my intention though. I was trying to describe those that instruct for 4 years to gain Part 135 or possibly ATP mins to get a 135 cargo flying job to then obtain more experience and possible the 1000 PIC turbine required for an eventual job at the Majors.

benairguitar23

True and I back them up 110%!!! And it's rare that we hear this about a Congressman, but I am exstatic about Oberstar's decision and how he is sticking to his guns!

acl65pilot

Actually, the really rich ones will just buy small airplanes. Had one guy buy one off a buddy of mine for a large sum. His sole reason was to get the time that would be required when he got out of school.

It will squeeze those that do not have the means to pay for 1500 hrs. There are some great jobs out there, and with this in place it will create a lot of turnover in other positions besides Instructors at the flight farms.

dashtrash300

My dad works for a major airline and he was telling me about this one pilot who's husband bought her a little twin jet so she could build her multi turbine PIC.