WIRunner

It may not be Republic related, but LGA is a hot foggy mess today. Delays and cancels from every airline.

malexander131

Aha. That makes more sense.

brocklee9000

Exactly. When I checked the weather, I saw something I've never seen before: BCAT1. I've been through plenty of IFR and some LIFR, but never anything quite as low as that. Once, a friend shared an ACARS printout when he landed in SEA a few months ago and it was 1/4SM FG VV001. They weren't sure if they'd make the approach (in a CR7, I think), and he was about to make a missed approach call and they started making out the lights. That challenging enough, I can't imagine trying to fly into a place like NYC. Bad weather, low visibility, wind...
It actually amazes me that LGA doesn't have approaches with lower minimums.

sfozrhfco

We will see what DL ends up with now that Republic has declared bankruptcy today...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...on-in-new-york

WIRunner

I think that it is almost all for show. I'd be more concerned with what United and American end up with. I feel for some reason they're going to get the short end of the stick.

readywhenyouare

This is what happens with knee-jerk legislation. 1500 hours does nothing to improve safety and those two Colgan pilots had much more than 1500 hours. The Colgan accident was a result of a captain who should have been de-winged years before the crash occurred. A few deaths has lead to a collapse of the regional airline industry.

StayingHomeIsBetter

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/26/news...&iid=obnetwork

brocklee9000

And I have always surmised that, until the majors start feeling the same impact, there will be little motivation to change it. Sure, the regionals are hurting, grounding planes, canceling flights. But they've always been undercutting others to fly a route. When their captains get 3000-5000 hours they jet (pun intended) to a mainline. So as long as there is a flow, and lobbying from groups like ALPA that "there's no pilot shortage," nothing will change. So now, my only viable option after school is to go spend more time and money to get an instructor rating, and go so some school that trains Chinese pilots, sitting in the right seat of a Cessna flying circles and making sure the new foreign pilot doesn't violate any regs or crash. I'm not trying to argue the merit of advanced ratings like CFI, but the value of the actual flight time: sitting in the right seat accruing 1,000 hours while mostly monitoring flights, or flying as the second-in-command of a turboprop or other commuter, observing and assisting an experienced captain flying to smaller airports or in busy terminal airspace, etc.

But hey, hit a magic number and SkyWest, Republic, TSA, and all the other regionals will let you commit 200-300 hours below ATP minimums, and throw you into jet systems, sims, and other classes 25-50 hours before minimums. I just feel that my time would be better spent, and my skills and abilities furthered, doing actual flying. But that's just my two cents.

3Cforme

People who think they know better than the FAA are welcome to make public comments to the docket during the open period. Be sure to add your FT screen name.

readywhenyouare

That's right. The government always knows best. Congressmen would never legislate something they know nothing about... You are such a good little citizen.

ATOBTTR

To say something like this is to not fully understand the chain of events that occurred and the "why's" behind them.

And I do have aircraft incident investigation experience with the USAF.

brocklee9000

And hey, even for someone with no aviation background, you should still be able to answer this question: when your airplane is alerting you to a stall (annunciations, stick shaker, aural alerts), what do you think the proper reaction should be?
a) Pull back on the stick (to raise the nose high into the air) and maneuver wildly
b) Level the wings, level the nose to the horizon, and apply power

Unusual attitude recovery while disoriented was one of the first flight lessons I ever had, and was constantly reviewed in every lesson I've had over the years, and it's been on every checkride I've taken so far. Every time I see the Colgan 3407 animation from the data recorders, I am just...floored. Pitching up to 30 degrees, full control deflections each way, full aileron one direction and full rudder completely opposite direction. I have to wonder if the nose ever would have leveled had the stick pusher not assisted.

Something like this should be instinctual. This wasn't an unforeseeable even like ValuJet 592 (where they didn't realize they were on fire, or know what the cause was). This wasn't the bizarre hijacking attempt of FedEx 705 (an ex-military pilot putting a fully-loaded DC10 through dogfighting maneuvers to subdue an assailant, all while wounded). This was a run-of-the-mill flight on a run-of-the-mill night, and should have been Private Pilot 101.