Hmmmm...........The theory is nice, but there are some very serious practical concerns that have nothing to do with professional aviation, but everything to do with the concept that the ATPL is the "ultimate" licence. This route means it no longer is such, it's a very limited variation of the concept that was there with the BCPL, but in a different arena,
I guess I can see several big objections. I for one would be very reluctant to fly as a passenger in something like a Seneca with a pilot that's never flown single crew, never flown piston props, ( or even worse, carburettor engines with icing potential) or flown a single engine go around in such an aircraft, or had to fly "steam" driven analog instrumented aircraft, or had to (try to) find a grass strip that's only got a windsock to identify where it is, or, or,,, or....
In a nutshell, a zero flight time ATPL would ideally have to have a restriction that prevents any single crew GA type flight operation without a comprehensive check out first.
Maybe I'm over reacting, but I've seen a few examples of both end of the spectrum, and some of what I've seen has not impressed me at all.
[This message has been edited by Irish Steve (edited 24 May 2001).]