Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – who has supported an unqualified nominee to run the FAA and blocked air traffic control staffing fixes – is taking on the Trump administration’s nominee to run the FAA. Bryan Bedford, the CEO of Republic Airways, has a long and distinguished career in aviation management – but he sought to have the FAA declared structured pilot training equivalent to mindless hours and this is anathema to the big pilot union.
“I am gravely concerned about the nomination of Bryan Bedford to serve as FAA administrator,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, wrote. “Mr. Bedford has been one of the most vocal and persistent advocates of rolling back and circumventing basic air safety standards,” including the “1,500 rule,” which requires new commercial passenger airline pilots to have that many hours of flying experience.
Schumer called Bedford’s nomination “incredibly dangerous.”
Here Schumer is carrying water for Captain Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, who says:
We have concerns about the nominee’s past efforts to lower pilot training and safety standards, and we look forward to hearing his assurances that he will maintain the current requirements.
Bedford proposed that graduates of Republic’s Leadership In Flight Training (LIFT) Academy be allowed to qualify for a Restricted Airline Transport Pilot (R-ATP) certificate with 750 hours of flight time, aligning with the reduced requirement granted to military-trained pilots. Bedford argued that the LIFT program’s structured, mission-specific training provided an equivalent level of safety to military training and would help address the pilot shortage by reducing financial and time barriers for aspiring pilot. The Biden FAA rejected this request – without evaluating the LIFT program.
But the 1,500 hour rule for co-pilots has nothing to do with safety.
- The 1,500 hour rule was an off-the-shelf response to the Colgan Air crash, but wouldn’t have prevented it. Both pilots had more hours than that. ALPA had their hobby horse ready to go – it’s just a barrier to entry into the pilot profession, designed to limit the supply of pilots and drive up wages.
- The 1,500 hour rule limits the available pool of top pilot, so is bad for safety. By making it more time-consuming and costly to become a pilot, the only available pilots are the ones who choose to run that gauntlet. The 1,500 hour rule thins the pool of talent to choose from, meaning airlines have to select from a smaller pool that excludes better, safer pilots.
- The rule isn’t even designed for safety. There’s no learning or structure to the hours. Anything counts, even time in a hot air balloon. The balloon can even be tethered.
- The quest for hours is nothing like commercial flying. It’s mostly clear air touch and gos, in and out of the same airport(s). This experience doesn’t contribute to commercial flying preparedness.
- Airlines have to train bad habits out of pilots that they pick up in their quest for hours. Pilots just rack up mindless hours, and that puts them in a safety hole. They aren’t ready to go when hired, they have to get retrained.
- Pilots fly every day in the U.S. without 1,500 hours. Foreign airlines like Lufthansa have co-pilots landing and taking off from U.S. airports day in and day out without these hours, because Europe didn’t follow the United States in this foolishness. Europe is just as safe in the skies as the U.S. is, and there’s no problem with European pilots flying here. Similarly, U.S. airlines fly in European airspace without incident.
Ironically, Senator Schumer has been inimical to air travel safety – having blocked for years any solution to air traffic control staffing shortages at New York TRACON, doing the bidding of union controllers there who earn record levels of overtime due to the shortage.
Two years ago, Schumer supported a completely unqualified candidate to run the FAA. And in championing mindless hours as a pilot qualification, instead of structured training, he limits the available pool of talented pilots while making the profession less safe.
Look for…. the Union Label….
A victory for hyperbole, yet again! Aviation Safety “Enemy”…sheesh, Gary. Today, you’re seeking to waive the ‘1,500 hour’ rule, tomorrow it’ll be ‘oh, come on, let’s just have 1 pilot for 300 souls,’ and the next day, ‘bah, who needs age limits’ for pilots (65) and ATC (56). So, who’s actually an enemy of aviation safety here?
Spot on, on all points!
And, I might add, the 6 foot separation rule during the COVID pandemic had no basis in medical/scientific fact. Politics…
As I noted twice before, while you are right about the pointlessness of sheer hours no airline is going to take balloon time seriously. And even balloonists can’t log tethered time. Please do not use these as arguments as they are straw men.
I trust the intelligence and brain capacity of Chuck Schumer about as much as I trust the Alligator at my back door wanting to come in for a quick bite.
Schumer is finished. When AOC is seriously being floated as the Blue team’s top spot, everyone else including Schumer is doing everything they can to hold onto power.
@Ron — 6 feet was meant to be like a speed limit. Yes, some go above, others go under, but generally more distance is safer, whether on the road, between vehicles, or between people, during a once-in-a-century global pandemic which killed millions of people around the world. Recall that we did not have a cure (at the time that the rule was introduced). Yes, the WHO said just 3 feet, so there was debate within the medical and scientific community. Implementing these rules, and enforcement, absolutely was done by governments (politics, ah!). And, no, these days, no one bothers with anything anymore, because, thankfully, we have relative immunity, as well as vaccines and antiviral medications, which do save lives, especially for the most vulnerable. (Please, feel free to go anti-vax here. You’d be wrong, but always welcome to say whatever you’d like.) Even today, some still get new variants that put them in the hospital. I know, it’s easy to mock, diminish, or even feel this collective amnesia and revisionist history about the pandemic, but it was real, it was serious, there was so much uncertainty, and it affected all of us in different ways. Be grateful you survived.
@Tim Dunn — ‘Finished’? Not sure about that, but perhaps it would be best for his party and maybe even his own constituents. (I am one. While I appreciate his personal story, I think he’s been relatively feckless recently, and we do need a new, younger generation of leadership.) Yet, officially, Schumer’s current Senate term ends on January 3, 2029. As to his ‘minority leader’ term, that’s decided each new Congress; we’re currently in the 119th Congress, which ends in January 2027. So, he can stay in those respective roles for years and years, until those dates above, unless he decides to step down himself, or his health becomes an issue, or there is sufficient private/public pressure for him to do so. He could also decide to run again for both. Oof.
Schumer isn’t qualified or smart enough to appoint your local sanitation manager. Will give credit to AOC that she’s smarter and more qualified for Senator than this moron.
As a retired airline pilot and former flight instructor, now an FAA inspector, I feel I need to inject my 2 cents into this conversation!
I have always said I could teach a monkey to fly and they will be very good pilots, however, 700 hours or anything less than 1500 hours does not give a pilot the experience necessary to command an aircraft with 200+ passengers. That ability comes with multiple hours of experience! The decision-making process only comes with time. When I had a scant 700 hours or so, no way did I have the expertise to command a large aircraft with 200 pax!
The airlines only hire the best of the best, and that trait cannot be evaluated with minimal flight hours. I have trained many pilots as an instructor who have become excellent pilots but they did not become that way until many hours later as they progressed through the ranks to get command of a large aircraft.
When I went to the airlines, an extra burden was put on me to prove myself as I am a woman. Obviously I did but I had 2500 hours then and still did not feel I was yet qualified to command the flight so began my career as a first officer. It’s a very complex world at 35,000 feet and takes many hours to prepare for that.
To hire 700hour pilots is like hiring a brain surgeon before attending med school. Lack of experience puts the flying public in imminent danger, therefore, minimums established should not lowered!
As an airline pilot instructor, I have to train and evaluate new hire pilots all the time. Yeah, they passed the ATP check ride and physical. I have to judge their ability to not only work the complex systems of the aircraft but to fly the aircraft under very difficult conditions at 10 miles per minute. I can’t speak for other airlines but our company stresses that the captain has to have the confidence that the FO can make quick decisions that affect the flight while the captain deals with complex issues that arise. The captain is always kept “in the loop”…that’s good CRM. This is where experience comes in. The only way a new hire can handle these issues is EXPERIENCE. Bouncing around in a Cessna 172 for 1500 hours is one thing. Corporate, Part 135 and military experience for 1500 hours…that’s a whole different ball game. Those pilots have the “been there..done that…gotta T-shirt” experience. I would much rather teach a low time pilot like that than a CFII ASMEL bouncing around in a Cessna. Airlines and Part 135 operations that teach using AQP and CRM turn out pretty good pilots. The fact that most airlines dropped the college degree requirement have opened the door to some really good new hires.
To Tim Dunn: I like what Senator Kennedy said about AOC, ““I consider Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez to be the leader for the Democratic Party. She’s entitled to her opinion. I’m entitled to mine. As I’ve said about her before, I think she’s the reason that there are directions on a shampoo bottle.”
As a pilot, I can say that Nothing Magical happens when a pilot logs in 1500 hours. The unions pulled that number out of their butts. It’s all about union control and politics, NOT public safety. As a pilot, I agree 100% with the 750 hour requirement for most pilots. Some might need 2000 hours. Keep in mind Schumer is not qualified to manage a Taco Bell, let alone the government. How many hours of flight time does Schumer have???
I’m struggling to understand how ensuring a properly trained flight deck could be anything but good. I also don’t understand how we can be seeing an alarming increase in close calls and now a kid-air collision and at the same time try to argue that less training is the solution.
I don’t care how short we are on pilots, you do not out unprepared people behind the controls. It’s not about how to fly the plane when things are in a state of normalcy, it’s about knowing how to response when there are flames shooting out of an engine, a piece of the fuselage has been ripped off the plane or the hydraulics fail.
Imagine if we said we were going to cut the time it takes to train a physician in half. Would you really want a physician with half the training caring for your child, your spouse, your parent? I’m sure Morgan & Morgan would get behind this idea.
And, IMHO, Schumer and ALL politicians past the age of retirement need to go. They are drunk with power and refusing to let go.
Planes will be falling from the skies. Dangerous, does anyone care about human lives anymore?
Give the pilots all the training and hours that they can possibly get! Lowering standards is NEVER the way to go! Ever!
@CRS it is here in Florida. We gave parents the option to use vouchers for private and charter schools. A bunch of for-profits and low-quality non-profits saw an opportunity and pulled a ton of kids into their schools and away from public schools. Achievement scores tanked for math and reading proficiency in high school. Florida’s solution…eliminate the testing standards.
So sad how we keep lowering expectations in the hopes people might able to meet them and then we act shocked when things go wrong. Standards exist for a reason, are they somewhat arbitrary? Sometimes, but this arbitrariness is often rooted in some basis of evidence suggesting the intention is the right move.
Gary how many hours of flight time do you have? What FAA certificates do you hold?
I’m sick of people who know nothing about flying doing what they can to lower experience in aircraft. For what purpose? The pilot shortage is over. So I suspect you have one reason only for wanting to lower requirements.
And stop with the hot air balloon strawman, it shows your ignorance on the subject.
@George N Romey — Nah, the Senator is ‘smart,’ we just may have a difference of opinion on this particular policy, and also, folks such as myself are not pleased with his apparent ‘appeasement’ in March over the funding bill, but that’s beside the point. No need to denigrate him or anyone here.
@Win Whitmire — I wish, but she isn’t, yet. I imagine folks such as yourself loathe former Mayor and Secretary Pete, but he is also a primary contender from the center of the party. There is no apparent leadership at the moment, in-name-only, it is Schumer and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, for now. No, they are not compelling, nor do they need to be at the moment. They’re just letting your guys overreach so that when the midterms come around the pendulum will swing back. I may not agree with the strategy, but they’re very much following the theme of “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake” (Napoleon Bonaparte). I believe the Ragin’ Cajun himself, long-time Democratic party strategist, James Carville, advised as much.
@Parker — Kudos on your response to @CRS. I cannot say enough bad things about the FCAT and the results of ‘teaching to the test’ and the resulting underfunding of public schools in Florida. It basically forced anyone with means to move their kids to private and parochial schools, some of which are quite good, competitive, but also inherently segregating, even if de facto, rather than de jure. It’s very concerning. Turns out the South won, after all. Just a different time horizon than expected. Same probably goes for the Cold War, too, and not in our favor (the USA that is). Yikes.
Equating 750 hours in a commercial flight training environment to military flight training and experience is laughable