Am I feeling lucky?
In the great state of Ohio, one needs 1,800 hours of training to become a licensed barber (way too much, I think); 1,000 hours of training to become a licensed police officer (sounds about right); and 120 hours of training to become a real estate salesperson (again, sounds about right). Where does a commercial pilot’s license fall on that spectrum—both in terms of hours needed, and in terms of “responsibility assumed when doing your job”? I ask because I have seen some numbers given out, in many posts on this forum, that seem quite low (“Do I want someone with the training of a realtor to be flying the airplane in which I am a passenger?”) On the other hand, there seem to be relatively few commercial air accidents in terms of number of total hours flown, so somebody must be doing something right. Is it that the amount of training really is sufficient? Is it that the work is almost always routine and thus super skills are almost never needed? Is it that there is an enormous supporting structure (well-developed rules, ATC, etc.) that almost always makes up for any crew shortcomings? Thoughts?