There are some urban legends around about MCC, so a bit of history.......
I cant remember exactly when, but around 2013 when CASR Part 61 was still in the draft melting pot, there was a push from "certain quarters" for CASA to copy the FAA requirement that a pilot could not conduct multi-crew ops unless they had 1500 hours as a pilot. The NTSB report on the Q400 Colgan crash at Buffalo was critical of several multi-crew aspects of the operation and the so called "1500 hour rule" was introduced by the FAA as one of the direct responses to the crash. This was obviously some kind of token reaction, as both of the pilots involved had well over 1500 hours!
The CASA DAS of the day was questioned directly at Senate estimates as to whether CASA was going to follow the FAA 1500 hour rule. The reply was that CASA would not, but instead would follow the European model of MCC. This came as a surprise to lots of people but, sure enough, the MCC qualification was introduced with the "new" regs.
Various flight schools then geared up for MCC courses, but a Part 142 approval was required, the required sim specs were quite tight and the sims were expensive, so very few operators ended up getting approval. Some airlines chose to integrate MCC into their type ratings if these were conducted in-house (e.g. QF, QF Link etc) while others didn't, and required MCC to be obtained as an entry requirement. (e.g. VA, JQ).
A point of difference with EASA is that their regs require MCC to be done prior to commencing a type rating, while the CASA regs don't. So, in Aus, you can do your first multi-crew type rating before you do MCC - although you cant use the rating until you get an MCC - not really a logical sequence. In terms of integrating MCC into a type rating, I guess that for an an airline there must be a cost consideration in using its full motion simulators and paying a TRI.
As an aside, in the USA, ALPA backed the FAA 1500 hour rule and has strongly opposed subsequent attempts to remove it, so there are obviously industrial considerations at play.
In respect of the original question, I guess it is up to an airline where they set their minimum requirements for application and its probable that checking the MCC box is used as a filter to reduce the number of applicants they need to interview.
FlySafe
PJ88
Last edited by Propjet88; 25th May 2025 at 01:52.