Far tougher flight-time requirements for new pilots

[Sportmotor]

I want a flying car >_>

I like the idea of 1500 flight time hours. This will make it harder for underqualified people to not beable to fly. Will also make it harder for those without alot of cash, to become a pilot unless you go through the military.
Which in all honesty that kind of disapline would be good anyway for pilots.

[CS Foltz]

Sportmotor.......military is not the only way to learn to fly! Civilian pilots can do just fine with the proper training and alll ATP pilots go through annual training and type certification. Key is to get that far and that takes stick time along with a heap load work. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots!

[FayeforCure]

I like the idea of 1500 flight time hours. This will make it harder for underqualified people to not beable to fly. Will also make it harder for those without alot of cash, to become a pilot unless you go through the military.
Which in all honesty that kind of disapline would be good anyway for pilots.

Yeah, a firm 1,500 flight time requirement is what the Families wanted, and it also ensures proper and fair enforcement. The way it was changed by John Mica, creates a major loophole for arbitrary enforcement:

A gain for air safety
House alters pilot-training measure but it still deserves prompt passage
October 18, 2009,

The flight safety bill that landed in the House of Representatives didn’t look quite like the one that took off from that body’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee several weeks ago.

But the measure is still a major improvement in the rules for the training and hiring of airline pilots nationwide, and the changes are no reason to stop the bill from becoming law. The billâ€"passed Wednesday by a vote of 409 to 11â€" should still give the loved ones of those who died in the February crash of Flight 3407 some satisfaction that the government has significantly improved rules that were revealed as tragically inadequate only after the death of 50 people that night in Clarence Center.

As approved by the committee, and backed by members of Congress who represent Western New York, a key provision of the bill was to require 1,500 hours of flight experience, as opposed to the current 250, before anyone can be hired to pilot aircraft of any size for any passenger-carrying airline.

As amended by some key members of Congress, to the surprise of the families and the representatives who have taken up their cause, the bill would allow the Federal Aviation Administration to allow flight schools to meet the new requirement with a combination of flight time and classroom hours. It would allow the FAA to make the call as to whether, as offered by any particular school, the classroom instruction would “enhance safety more” than a strict adherence to a requirement for 1,500 hours actually in the cockpit.

The push for change came from a congressmanâ€"John L. Micaâ€"who is at once the top Republican on the subcommittee that oversees aviation and the representative from a Florida district that happens to house one of the nation’s top flight schoolsâ€"Embry-Riddle University.

The argument made by Embry-Riddle and other schools, and adopted by the amended bill, was that a flat flight-time rule would push prospective pilots away from the big schools and toward smallerâ€"one is tempted to say fly-bynightâ€" schools that allegedly don’t train their pilots as thoroughly but do afford their students more stick time.

The bill still has to get through the Senate, where New York’s Charles E. Schumer said he still favors the straight 1,500-hour flight-time requirement. He’s right, but not right enough to block the bill from passing if compromise on that point is what it will take. The training requirement is a huge improvement either way, as are rules that would make the airlines deal with more specific training and pilot fatigue issues.

The fact is that, whether the final bill uses the House or the Senate language, enforcement will still be up to the FAA. It will still fall to that executive agency, with a boss appointed by the president and a budget approved by Congress, to make sure flight training follows both the letter and the spirit of the law.

That means that the work of Congress won’t be done when this bill, in whatever version, is passed. It will still be the job of our representatives to watch the watchdogs, make sure that the regulated don’t have too much sway over the regulators and that the will of the people be done.

If the watered down version becomes law, it's kind of like having a speed limit, that gets enforced selectively, depending on what part of town you are from or any other arbitrary reason.

[CS Foltz]

Well I agree with the concept of more stick time..............there is no classroom substitute for a hands on environment. Aircraft operations, safely done, is as easy as driving ones vehicle until you have weather issue's occur or a mechanical glitch that takes place then you need to know just what to do. No substitute for stick time is a plain and simple line of thought! Emery Riddle is a world class school, I used a structures engineer to validate a corner chair for a Citation being exported to Italy from there. Very professional and things worked out just fine.

[civil42806]

Think the fact Mica is involved has anything to do with this post LOL!!

[BridgeTroll]

Fayes drama is misplaced...  Democrat Jerry Costello should get the most credit...

Negotiations with Rep. Jerry F. Costello, an Illinois Democrat and chairman of the aviation subcommittee, produced the compromise, which allows the head of the Federal Aviation Administration to decide how much classroom time can be counted as flight time under the 1,500-hour requirement. The classroom time would have to "enhance safety more" than would additional hours in the cockpit, the insertion says.

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/827122.html

[Overstreet]

Sportmotor.......military is not the only way to learn to fly! Civilian pilots can do just fine with the proper training and alll ATP pilots go through annual training and type certification. Key is to get that far and that takes stick time along with a heap load work. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots!

All true. However the main advantage for the military pilot is that Uncle Sam pays for the flight hours. Civilians have to find other ways to pay for it or pull the cost out of pocket. 

One way has always been to teach private pilot lessons. Think of it the pilot has 1500 hours, but it is in a Cessna 150 teaching VFR daylight good weather flying.  Is the 1500 hours assuring quality experience or just more of it?

[CS Foltz]

Good question overstreet! I do agree by the way regarding military flight experience......nice when Uncle Sam picks up the tab...........but a civilian pilot can do the same, it just takes longer! Big difference between a Cessna 150 and a Cessna 500 series..........not only engine type, prop to jet, but IFR on top of VFR and multi engine work also! Takes work no matter how one goes at it but I agree with the concept of additional hours on the stick end of things....class room is all fine and dandy but actual time at the controls means a lot!