On August
1st, 2010 President Obama signed Public Law 111-216 titled The
Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Act of 2010. This was a
result of Colgan Air Flight 3407. The flight took place on February 12, 2009
departing from Newark, New Jersey and intending to land in Buffalo, New York.
The plane crashed in Buffalo’s nearby City Clarence Center, New York killing
all 45 passengers, four crew members, and one person on the ground a total of
50 deaths altogether. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) stated that the reason for the crash was the pilot’s improper
reaction from the stall warning devices onboard the aircraft. The blame for
this was then put on the pilot’s inexperience this of course sparked the
creation for Public Law 111-216.
Some
things that the law changes are:
- First officers are
now required to hold an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate in part 121
operations (ATP)
- An ATP requires
1500 flight hours
- It is proposed that pilots with an aviation degree or
military pilot experience will only be required to get 1000 flight hours
- The FAA is also
planning for the pilots to be required to get a type rating in the aircraft
being operated
I feel
that these law changes were made both reactively and they were necessary. Unfortunately
in aviation this is usually how new laws come into place, because of an
accident or incident of some kind. These changes were implied in order to
create a safer environment for passengers and the flight crew alike. Click here
in order to view the law in full.
This
is an issue facing me and many pilots that do not have anywhere close the 1500
flight hours for an ATP. The typical plan that many pilots do is go from flight
instructing to a job in the regional airlines this is done around 700 hours and
up. With the new law they are going to have to a little more patient and wait
for the new minimum hour requirement, this is exactly what I plan to do. This will
effect EMU’s future in flight training by not allowing the current flight
instructors to move on to the regionals fast enough therefore not allowing them
to hire in new CFI’s and allow them to start gaining flight experience.
On the bright side, not all jobs are regulated by part 121. We might end up flying in Canada or charter planes, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's the domino effect. With regional airlines requiring more hours, CFIs are taking longer to meet their qualifications. Newly certificated CFIs are then forced to wait for positions to open. But like Robert said, there are other opportunities out there.
ReplyDeleteInteresting...I don't, however, make the connection of how keeping flight instructors around longer would be a problem for EMU. They would probably benefit from the additional experience.
ReplyDeleteI think he's saying that higher turnover is good for EMU, and we will start to see less turnover.
DeleteI'm just wondering how serious of an impact this will have. How many hours do most flight instructors have when they leave the Eagle Flight Centre? I have know of a few in my time at Eagle, but I think most of the instructors I have know had over 1000 hours anyway. Even if most instructors had 700 hours when they left, will things really change that much?
ReplyDeleteAn instructor should be able to build 75-100 hours per month if they're not lazy. If they are forced to instruct until they have 1500 hours (worst case scenario, maybe even 1000 hours), how much longer would they have to instruct? If they instructed 75 hours a month for 10 2/3 months, they would reach 1500 hours. Let's round up to 1 year.
In a worst case scenario, an instructor may have to instruct for a year extra before applying to a regional carrier. There will also be some instructors that leave under 1000 hours for a job that is not with a part 121 operator. I question how much this will really affect the operations at Eagle Flight...
I agree with you Brad on flight instructors. As students we spend our first 200-300hours of flight training going back and fourth to the practice area then we turn around as flight instructors and spend another 200-300hours going to the practice are. Only difference is we went from the right seat to the left. It is the same hour of flight time over and over again. In this case it is not good practice (experience). What we are doing is repetition, which can be more crippling then good because we form bad habits.
ReplyDelete