"While most of the requirements included in the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009 are already being addressed by the FAA as part of earlier actions, Babbitt acknowledges the bill's proposal to significantly increase the minimum hours of flight time required for first officers would be a totally new requirement. But Babbitt believes requiring airline co-pilots to have at least 1,500 hours is not necessary.
"In the pilot community I think it is acknowledged that simply raising the total amount of time by over half is not really a good benchmark for how good the quality of the pilot is," Babbitt says. "The quality of training is far more important than the quantity of training or total time."
Babbitt, who took over as FAA administrator two months ago and is a former head of the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA), says the agency will try to educate members of Congress to prove to them that quality of training is more important than quantity."
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So instead he is proposing military flight training standards on puppy mills?
My dad who is a veterinarian, had to learn a lot of different surgical procedures on different animals... He always chuckled at the learning curve and the mantra in the profession "see one, do one, teach one".
I am not bagging on ATP et al, they turn out a fairly standardized product highly efficiently, but I am not sure that "see one, do one, teach one" is the way to go...