I was wasting some time at our airfield flight academy waiting on someone. Was talking to some of the foreign students and listening to their experiences flight training here in the US. A couple were working on advanced certifications and building hours so they could go to their own countries airlines. I was surprised to hear the differences. Of particular note, a couple Soth Korean pilots told me that South Korea has a 300 hour flight time requirement to go to the airlines. South Korea evidently has 8 major lines. 300 hours versus 1,500 for US lines. I was pretty shocked.

I was wondering. We have a pretty international membership here. What are the requirements in your country ?

You can get an ATP ticket with 300 hours???

edit: 500 hours in the US for an ATP.

Found another site that says S. Korea Airlines require 250 hours PIC, nothing about license/ Seems awfully low and a BIG burden on the guy in the left seat if a two pilot airplane, as most are now I believe.

Unfortunately the flight time requirements are crazy low in many countries. Due to pilot shortage and in some cases the need to keep the costs low.
I have even heard of pilots going straight from flight school to the right seat with no salary. Just for building hours. And they have to take up big loans to pay for the type rating.
I flew for a scandinavian airliner and believe the minimum requirements were 2000 hrs, prefferably with jet experience. Not sure what the requirements are now, but they are lower for sure.
In those times the company paid the type rating. You just were committing to the airline for a number of years.

So you can say I am very picky with where I buy tickets for my children. :-)

The 1500 hour thing is no longer accurate. There are dozens of ways of gaming the system to legally increase the hours without actually flying them. Example, you can do a night flight, do a full stop, and count it as one hour. If you find an empty airfield you can count each takeoff/landing set as 1 hour of night flight time. You could rack up the required 100 hours in a few nights of this.

100 hours in a simulator

25 hours in a multi sim

25 hours in an ifr sim

etc etc.

The reality is you don't actually need anywhere near 1500 hours to get work in the US as a pilot anymore. I don't have a US license so I'm not sure of the exact details but there is probably something like a restricted ATPL that allows pilots to fly under specific conditions, i.e. the captain is high time in the type etc.

I understand where you are coming from OG, but

In 1935, the training syllabus outlined a one year course involving 465 hours of ground school and 300 hours of flight school. In 1939 the training syllabus was reduced to seven months, as follows;

Primary land planes 14 weeks 74 hours
Basic training(intermediate land planes) 5.5 weeks 45 hours
Specialized training 6.5 weeks 88 hours

Longbow, I don’t think I buy your hour of night flight explanation.

I don`t know how you do it in Japan.
In my country my logbook compares to the aircrafts logbook.
Night hours is actual time flying when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/61.159

section 6 part b

I hold a Canadian license, not Japanese and am not speaking about myself, just things that exist out there. Flight schools are very aware of these things in the US and abroad.

It is a bit more restricted than what you presented.

(b) A person who has performed at least 20 night takeoffs and landings to a full stop may substitute each additional night takeoff and landing to a full stop for 1 hour of night flight time to satisfy the requirements of paragraph (a)(2) of this section; however, not more than 25 hours of night flight time may be credited in this manner.


But you were right that some of the requirement can be met by a night takeoff and full stop landing can be credited for an hour of night flight. But only 25. In context, it makes sense.

The market in Europe is really screwed up. You can get into the right seat of an airliner with 200 hours, with just your CPL and IR/ME ratings. Then you «unlock» your ATP when you are due for your command upgrade, which of course still has to happen after 1500 hours.

The crazy thing is the job market. In Ryanair, you are not employed directly by the airline. You have to set up your own limited company in Ireland, from where you provide your services as a pilot to another company called Brookfield Aviation, wholly owned by Ryanair, who provides the pilots for the airline. This absolves Ryanair from having to pay taxes and sosial contributions, as the pilots are «self-employed.» You also are paid in net, and have to figure out yourself where to pay taxes. Your home country, or the country where you are based. All of it is a load of bullsh*t of course, as you cannot fly for any other airline, so you are not of course in reality self-employed.
To top it all off, pilots PAY for their interview, to the tone of about €300 I think. No food is served onboard, only hot water is provided, you have to bring your own coffee, and buy bottled water if you’re thirsty. Interesting on a 13-hour day with an out and back from northern Europe to the Canary Islands.

Ryanair and other airlines following suit have basically ruined the job market for European pilots, as other airlines have been forced to extreme measures to cut costs in order to compete with the absurdly low ticket prices.

There is also something that is called «Pay to Fly,» which should not be allowed to exist anywhere. It is a scheme dreamed up by some eastern European airlines, where you pay for flight school, a Boeing or Airbus type rating, and the first 500 or so hours of flying for that airline. Yes, you actually pay to fly for an airline, during which time you receive no salary! They tell you it will help you gain experience, and they wave the possibility of a job offer in front of you after you complete your 500 hours, but they will of course discard you then and grab the next sucker in line who will pay to work.

All of this has filled the European skies with a lot of low-hour wonderboy pilots, with very few aviators among them. And the EU closes its eyes and ears until we get a couple of accidents. Only with actual deaths will something happen, similar to the Colgan Air accident in Buffalo and the aftermath created by that.

That is disheartening to hear semmern. Not very fair to the pilots and not as reassuring to the passengers.

This subject makes me happy to fly myself.

The public doesn’t care, it has come to expect $20 tickets, but they still want the first-class service of yesteryear.

That's not just an airlines industry problem.


Wheels