At a recent industry meeting with customers and operators, the shortage of pilots and engineers (mechanics) was the most discussed issue. Operator representatives challenged the current system of specifying thousands of hours for pilots as most contracts do now and reminded the customers that various military services have young pilots doing night carrier landings in bad weather with far less than a thousand hours and suggested daytime VMC ops offshore should not be as intense or as demanding as the military pilots landing on aircraft carriers.
With Bristow buying HAI ....they will be in the lead as the industry finally begins to invest in training of replacement pilots as the Vietnam War pool of pilots dwindles due to retirement, loss of medicals, and worse.
There is no doubt the hours standard shall be changing......and about time too!