The Time Between exists as a blog containing commentary and opinion columns on the Aviation industry, Short excerpts of flights while flying a Van’s RV-12is in the Experimental Light Sport Aircraft category as well as the limitations and expectations of flying such an aircraft, and serves as a perspective into what some pilots do between finishing their Commercial Certificate and Airline Transport Pilots License as well as a semi-personal blog on the progress of N525PN Van’s RV-12is.
A background about the American Airline pilot pipeline:
Prior to August 1, 2010 the minimum requirement for a pilot to sign on with an airline was 250 Hours of flight time however this changed with the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2010 in response to the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash in 2009 which resulted in the loss of 50 lives on board. With the FAA reauthorization act, the minimum to be signed onto an airline as a first officer (Co-pilot) was changed to require an ATP license which requires a minimum of 1500 hours of flight time.
This created a unique situation where pilots couldn’t go straight into the airlines once they completed their Commercial Certificate and had to find ways to bridge the gap between 250 hours (the minimum required for a Commercial Certificate) and 1500 hours to qualify for a Airline Transport Pilot License.
The Time Between 