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USA Minimum Hours for Commercial Co-pilots

Submitted by Richard on 18 Mar 2010

Following the Colgan Air Dash 8 accident, the lack of experience and training of the flight deck crew was considered a contributing factor. The US Senate has now approved a change in the rules making 800 hours being the minimum for commercial co-pilots.

The article can be found here.

How will people get the experience to become co-pilot? Do they know it will increase the cost of crewing as there will be a smaller pool of qualified co-pilots? I know this is only a USA issue but often these thing cross the Atlantic. This is a big issue.

Trying to gain another 550

Submitted by Jon on Thu, 18/03/2010 - 22:44.

Trying to gain another 550 hours is going to be very difficult. Especially as everyone is going to have to do it, there are only so many flying instructor jobs.

There is still significant pressure for the minimum to be increased even further to 1500 hours. Challenging times ahead for those wanting to become commercial pilots.

I think this will put a lot

Submitted by Richard on Thu, 18/03/2010 - 23:26.

I think this will put a lot of pressure on some of the smaller commuter airlines in the US, possibly driving some out of business. As I heard today on a podcast, it will just please the non flying public who think high hours = good pilot.

I have to say I have heard no one saying that this requirement will cross the Atlantic.

Yeah, it doesn't seem to have

Submitted by Jon on Thu, 18/03/2010 - 23:55.

Yeah, it doesn't seem to have been picked up in Europe at all. Do you think there is a chance more American low hours pilots might start looking at converting to JAA licenses and even some people coming to Europe to train?

I believe financing is going to be a big problem created from this change, for individuals and companies alike.

I believe there will be alot

Submitted by jshepstone on Fri, 19/03/2010 - 09:50.

I believe there will be alot of pressure from EU airlines to prevent this, people like Ryanair, FlyBe and EasyJet are successful because they employ cheaper, low hours pilots.

Richard is also right about high hours not necessarily meaning good pilot, I'm sure the experience helps, but we could get the situation now where someone has 800 hours in a c152 who can afford to hour build getting a job against someone who deserves it.

This could seriously damage the US industry, if you haven't seen it already, check out this video

http://www.wimp.com/pilotsstamps/

James, nice video. I have

Submitted by Richard on Sat, 20/03/2010 - 09:34.

James, nice video. I have seen before and have been showing as many people as can find to see it. It is a very important issue that needs some serious consideration. It is a statistical fact that the more you pay pilots the less likely they are to have an accident.

This is an interesting article about the new 800 hour rule:

http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/03/17/990217/senate-oks-measure-to-boost...

This is a stupid things.

Submitted by hardcore on Sat, 20/03/2010 - 18:57.

This is a stupid things. They make the goal post moving all the times in this just another way of stopping making me into a pilot. I paid for my trainings and now I am ready for a job but now I need 800 hours. Where do I have to gets these hours from. It's crazy. What are we going to do about this? Why is no one else mad like me?

The aviation industry is one

Submitted by jshepstone on Mon, 22/03/2010 - 09:48.

The aviation industry is one that is customer facing and people will only fly if they believe it is as safe as possible (even if you show them statistics to say that it is anyway).

Events that occur in the industry quite often bring about rule changes, we have seen the effects 9\11 and the liquid bomb attack has had on the industry and this, unfortunately is the latest change, that will affect a lot of people on this forum and entering the industry.

Of course a lot of us will now be concerned whether this will occur in the EU, pilots as well as airlines but we will have to wait and see on developments over the next few months

Also, you never know what

Submitted by Jon on Mon, 22/03/2010 - 22:12.

Also, you never know what might happen to these regulations if their impact is significantly negative.

It might seem unlikely, but if there is a shortfall of pilots, ticket prices are likely to rise leading to a demand for a reduction in the number of hours required to be an FO. The effects are unknown at present, and maybe we are lucky in Europe, that we can see what happens on the other side of the Atlantic.