1500 Hour Rule
 

hi there,
how does one obtain the 1500 hours required by comercial airlines in the USA,Thats about $250,000,anyway here is a link to an article regarding the new rule 1,500-hour Pilot Rule Presents Challenges And Opportunities | Aviation International News

Someone worried about how to get experience so he can get a job but can't get a job until he gets experience .

Sounds like sanity is returning to the industry .

Believe it or not, once upon a time you did not buy experience, you started at the very bottom and worked up.:ugh::ugh:

One cannot sell his experience, if he does not have it.

Well said SOPS ... this is something the P2Fers of today know nothing about.

I personally think this new 1500 hour rule is a total waste of time. As the article writer quite rightly points out the Coglan pilots both had in excess of this minimum. The cause of that crash was p*ss poor contracts that forced these pilots to have to live thousands of miles away from base as their pay was so crap they couldn't afford to live near their base. Add to that airline rosterers who are now treating Flight and Duty time limitations as a target as opposed to an absolute limit and you get a volatile mix.

I would have thought the was to sort out these problems would have been a new law to say that the minimum award for a Captain of an aircraft with more than 19 seats should be $100,000 per year with a co-pilot regardless of experience being on 66% of that. It might of bought some realism back to the industry. These franchise airlines would no longer win routes according to being the lowest bidder who has cut pilot / crew / engineer terms and conditions to offer services for that price. In turn that might mean that airlines start hiring more experienced individuals because that might as well hire the experienced guy if they can't 'sell' seats on the flight deck for 'pay to fly schemes'.

No that the 1500 hr rule in in we might aswell accept it because it is an attempt to address some serious issues. It just targets the wrong problem.

To answer the OP's question: By working in other areas of the industry until one builds the necessary experience for the next step up the career ladder. There's more to aviation than just airlines, y'know!

One can not rewrite history, but it is hard to believe that the accident would have occurred if the Captain had spent some time towing banners, flight instructing or doing pretty much anything else that low time pilots do. Instead he went from zero to hero in a poorly structured PFT scheme, and never learned basic skills.

Or to put it simply, no pilot who spent his formative years towing or instructing would have pulled the wheel into his gut. THAT is what caused this accident.

No where does the new rule require 1500 hours. It requires an ATP. And it then provides 3 ways to get an ATP with less than 1500 hours.

@al renko,

I don't know where you get $250,000... All the guys that I know are getting paid to reach ATP minimums via instructing, parachute dropping, glider towing, etc... I know a few guys on their first CFI job and making double what a first year regional FO makes.

Did instructing for 2 years, then moved to Africa to fly for 2 years and now currently flying in Papua New Guinea.

Its not glamorous and the living can be hard sometimes, but its one hell of an adventure. Enjoy the journey.

P>S I am Australian, and although the 1500hr doesn't exist in Aussie you still need to build many hours before your even considered for Airlines (unless your extremely lucky).


Have fun.

Africa , PNG , you will be employed more on being lucky than experienced .

I wish I could have obtained a flying job outside of instructing when I had 1,500 hours in the late 60's. I had 5,000 hours and had to buy a Citation type in order to jump the instructing ship. A foreign airline job came along and bye-bye. Even though "basic training" as an MEI CFI was a bit long, it was still good training for what was to come.

How times have changed...

Transitioning from rotor wing?
 

Reading job postings for the 1500 hour requirements, could I get into a position if I got a fixed wing commercial, fixed instrument and muti engine add on and use my rotorcraft pic (over 1500) and get a job? Or would they just laugh at my résumé?

Most airlines are going to want to see fixed wing time. As an example, Skywest gives helicopter credit at the rate of 50% credit up to 500hrs, so you'd need to find 1250 hours of fixed wing time in this case.

I didn't get my first regional co pilot job (in a 19 seat turbo prop) until I had over 2500 hours and I was grateful. I built hours as an independent flight instructor until I had 1200 hours and could fly IFR night freight in single engine cargo planes (in the snow and headwinds....both ways! :p)

It took several years of doing things like chipping ice off wings with a fuel tester and learning what a blown cylinder head (or two) felt like.

....landing on grass runways, treetop approaches along mountain slopes, taking buddies or girlfriends along when I could...come to think of it...it was the most fun I ever had flying airplanes and I miss it.

There are jobs out there and they're not easy but they will give you experience and will make you a real pilot. You'll probably have the time of your life too if you can avoid complaining about it not being a boring regional jet. :ok:

The Colgan crash happened, as has been said, because the crew were poorly trained and didn't understand the implications of the "increase ref speeds switch" or know how to react to a stall warning, as a crew, in the aircraft they were flying.

1500 hours probably wouldn't have made a difference if it was all VFR in a piper cub and they had the same training. Conversely there are many pilots flying aircraft as complex as the Q400, or larger, or faster, who have less than 1500 hours but are properly trained on the aircraft they fly who would not have stalled and crashed.

Arcdu,

You do not only are new in this forum, but also new in aviation.

yep

Also who pays for their ATP hours anway? :rolleyes: