Recently I wrote a column that Congress overreacted on increasing the First Officer (FO) and Captain minimum time to 1500 hours including an ATP and Type Rating. I do not have any problem with the Type Rating being required but do have a problem with ATP, other than for a Captain, and especially the 1500 hour rule.
I do not want someone flying me in an airliner that acquired their time being a flight instructor or spraying fields as a crop duster to build time. Flight instructors are an important part of aviation, my problem is most of their flying time is spent doing slow flight, stalls etc. I want someone who has real cross country flight time, flying in all conditions and who has flown in all type scenarios that can handle any type of situation because they have been there.
The only way to accomplish extreme proficiency is to have multiple hours in the simulator. I do not know anyone who was injured crashing a sim. The problem is there are not enough sim’s available to accomplish this. The airlines run their sim’s 24/7 for pilot recurrent training. I would much rather have a pilot who has logged 500 hours in a sim and 250 actual cross country in real icing and a student of weather.
Congress and the FAA have reacted to Asiana, Air France 340 and UPS flights that have gone down by requiring the airlines to develop a program on their sim’s that addresses the fact that airline pilots have forgotten how to hand fly airliners. Most airline flights turn on the autopilot around 300 feet AGL and turn it off at 200 feet AGL when landing. This saves the airline fuel as the autopilot can do a better job flying on course than a human. My problem is that the airlines were given 5 years to develop programs to give pilots better ability to fly.
The best airline pilots I have flown with own their own GA airplanes flying without the autopilot on. They are able to use the rudders, land visually and hold a course. In addition they know their airplanes speeds for takeoff, cruise and landing. Instead of waiting 5 years airlines should purchase basic piston airplanes and have their pilots train in these every 6 months to a year or set up programs with existing flight schools. This will bring back basic stick and rudder skills.
Just once I would like to see common sense prevail. In the commuter crash in Buffalo both pilots had over 1500 hours flight time. I was told the FO never flew in actual icing and the Captain failed several check rides. The Asiana crash had to fly a visual approach into SFO. I willing to bet I have more stick time, flying without the autopilot , than the person that attempted to land the Asiana 777.
The surviving family members, along with Captain Sullenberger, had Congress in a panic and Congress passed a law that is not beneficial to the flying public. There is going to be a shortage of airline pilots in the near future, as very few can afford the cost of obtaining 1500 hours. Military pilots have a 750 hour requirement and those that graduate from an accredited college in aviation will need to have 1000 hours. I believe the airlines should purchase more sim’s and recruit people from high schools and colleges teaching them how to be airline pilots as I described above. The problem is the airlines do not want to absorb the cost for this until it is too late, and no one is left to fly for them.
Five years to solve a problem how to hand fly an airliner is just too long. This should have started years ago.
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