Sir - Your article "Licence to change" (Flight International, 22-28 February, P25) provided a good overview of the proposed changes in Joint Aviation Rules (JAR) flight crew licences (FCL) Draft 5, but one statement is rather misleading. In the article postscript, which outlines the requirements of JAR FCL Part 1, you quote an integrated air-transport pilot's-licence course of 195 flying hours. This is incorrect.
JAR FCL Draft 5 proposes an integrated course of training of 195h total, of which up to 55h may be instrument ground time. The minimum of flying hours, therefore, will only be 140.
It may be useful to note, however, that, as 100h must be P1 (including student pilot in command), the 195h student may only have spent 40h gaining airborne dual instruction time during the integrated course of training. He or she will thus only get 40% of the dual instruction now given on a UK Civil Aviation Authority integrated course.
What the self-improver loses under JARs will be more than made up for in the reduction of qualifying hours for the commercial pilot's licence, from 700 to 200. In the end, the losers will be either the airlines, with a lower-quality product in the right-hand seat, or the flying schools, who, in trying to train for quality, will be priced out of the market.
S J GREEN
British Aerospace Flying College
Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK
Source: Flight International
