by DaveSims » Fri Mar 12, 2010 7:25 pm
The problem is, how do you get those hours? Most private pilots will never attain that. Currently, and in the past, pilots built time flight instructing, or flying light aircraft for hire.
I have two major problems with this new legislation. The first is the fact that this is a knee-jerk reaction to the Colgan air crash by politicians. They all seem to have missed the fact, that the pilot of that plane had 5000+ hours.
My second problem also addressed the Colgan incident. The pilot had 5000+ hours, but killed himself and the passengers in something that even a private pilot should have recognized, a stall. The FDR clearly shows, the pilot panicked and yanked back on the stick, and held it there all the way down. The 5000 hours he had, were probably all the same, take off, autopilot, land...etc. That is where using hours as a measure of experience is a major failure. I know pilots that have under 1000 hours, but those hours are all spent learning, and the pilots are very, very good. Then you have pilots with thousands of hours, most of which is spent zoned out letting the autopilot fly. Those have quit learning, and are just "driving the bus".
The truth is, if they really wanted to prevent another Colgan, is to overhaul airline training, and to strip some power from the pilot's union. The captain of that flight, should have never been hired, and should have been fired long before he got the chance to kill anyone. He failed multiple checkrides and was frequently noted for his lack of professionalism. With as many pilots as there are looking for jobs, there is no room to accept a mediocre, even a troublesome, pilot.
... all because the airlines were fighting to put more jets in the sky. And then add in how this profit attitude effects maintenance.
