This Day in History: 2006-10-16

On 16 October 2006 it was reported that CASA had considered whether to adopt a new* international co-pilot’s licence that would require just 10 hours solo experience commanding a plane. The 10 hours of command time, dropped from the existing Australian standard of 100 hours, would be coupled with 230 hours in a flight simulator. The proposal drew both claims of support and of negative safety consequences. *ICAO Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Training (PANS-TRG) establishing a new type of flight crew licence to be known as the Multi-crew Pilot Licence (MPL). Source: Cath Hart, ‘Air hours slashed in new pilot licences’, The Australian, 16 October 2006, p. 3. via aph.gov.au website