From Malcolm's article (referred to above):
The present ICAO CPL/IR (instrument rating) calls for a minimum total time of 180 hours. Those hours must include 170 hours of command time, a minimum of 15 hours under instruction and 40 hours in a “synthetic training device.”
This is outdated and patently ridiculous. What possible use is 170 hours command time for someone who has a total time of 250 hours or less? Those hours are, by definition, unsupervised and an inefficient use of expensive airborne time. As a contrast, my initial training in the RAF, prior to starting on the C130, took 380 hours of which around 100 were command time. If I had done flying purely related to basic training plus the multi-engine stuff required prior to the C130 (leaving out the Valley Advanced Flying Training on the Hawk, and Tactical Weapons Unit on the Hunter, neither of which was relevant to my later employment), I would have had around 240 hours, with about 60 or less in command.
Time in training should be used to train, not to have pilots boring holes in the sky unsupervised. I have some issue with the proportion of simulator hours proposed for this course, but not the principle that training for potential airline pilots should be task-specific, and not tacked on to the PPL with lots of extra solo time. The MPL is a start in this direction. I doubt it will survive long in its current form without several changes, but it will provide the basis for future commercial training.
Scroggs