Originally Posted by
City Flyer
The fundamental problem is a training system that insufficiently equips crew with the skills required, an airline system that places such demands on people that cross-country commuting is the norm and not the exception, and a regulatory system that fails to act with rostering patterns that are unsustainable by any reasonable human.
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The problem is that as long as airline bean counters treat training as an undesired expense which is to be minimized to the greatest extent possible and regulators get political heat from the airline lobby anytime they try to tighten things up, nothing is going to change.
The 1500 hr is far from the perfect solution but it has the very great strength of being unambiguous. There is no way this can be interpreted by airline execs to their advantage, which invariably means cut corners to save money. On average a 1500 pilot starting his/her first job rings more to the table than a 250 hr pilot fresh out of a college puppy mill. I think this is a good thing and will ultimately produce both safer operations and better terms and conditions for pilots.