You've touched on a very relevant topic of late (in the industry). At present it's undergoing review in that the 500hr figure may well be lowered. The BHAB are addressing this issue with advice from us in the industry. I personally am an advocate for lowering because the current level may well be a little too restrictive. Suffice to say when the figure was first drawn up it was the first attempt at defining experience levels the industry 'thought' might be necessary to complete the task safely. It wasn't unreasonable to make this assumption because as has been comfortably described previously on this subject, the pilot pool available should come from an area where experience and training are a KNOWN quantity. The Home Office couldn't then and can't now afford to jeopardise public safety in any way shape or form.. Trouble is...the military pool is drying up. What do they do now? This is one solution. You still have other hurdles to overcome though!
1500-2000PiC
100+ PiC night
Some Forces advocate: previous police experience as well!
Believe me, I have significant single and twin time. The twin only buys you time so that you can sweat over the systems failure for longer!
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TC