RAA RECOMMENDS CHANGES TO FIRST OFFICER QUALIFICATION NPRM

May 2, 2012 flight2000it

n public comments filed yesterday, the Regional Airline Association (RAA) strongly supports most of the important rule changes in the First Officer Qualification (FOQ) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) urging specific revisions to enhance safety and the qualifications of Part 121 airline pilots. However to avoid “unintended consequences”, RAA recommends two important changes to the NPRM:

• Substitute the Aeronautical Experience Credit System for the proposed academic training credit for flight experience; and
• Accept the 500 minimum actual number of flight hours from the proposed 1000 flights hours.
“Flight safety involves far more than accumulating an arbitrarily mandated number of actual flight hours. Rather, airline flight safety is ensured only when Part 121 pilot candidates receive the right training in the right training environments,” wrote RAA.
RAA also underlined the NPRM incentivizes individuals to “buy the hours in the cheapest way possible” to obtain 1500 hours for an unrestricted Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate. “Adding this cost…to the financial burdens that an aspiring airline pilot and his/her family already must shoulder will further exacerbate the existing shortage of airline pilot candidates.”

Source: RAA