Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

19. Department of Transportation · Notable

Relax the 1,500-hour copilot rule or allow certified simulator training to count

Not started

631 19. Department of Transportation

“In the wake of the 2009 Colgan Airlines crash, all commercial pilots and copilots were required to have 1,500 flight hours. … This trend could be reversed if copilots were required to have fewer flight hours or could count certified simulator training.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    The 1,500-hour requirement in 14 CFR 61.159 and the restricted-privileges ATP pathways in 61.160 are unchanged, and the FAA has opened no rulemaking to relax them or to widen the credit given for simulator training. A full-text Federal Register search since 2025-01-20 for "restricted privileges" together with "airline transport pilot" returns two documents, both of them requests for comment on reinstating the information collection that supports the existing Pilot Certification and Qualification Requirements rule (2026-02-13 and 2026-08-27) — administrative housekeeping for the rule as it stands, not a change to it. No bill to amend 49 U.S.C. 44729 or the flight-hour requirement was identified in the 119th Congress.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The rule the Quote describes was made by Congress as well as by the FAA: 49 U.S.C. 44729 and the Airline Safety and FAA Extension Act of 2010 drive 14 CFR 61.159/61.160, so a full relaxation needs Congress even though the simulator-credit half could be done by rule. Neither route has been taken.
  • Existing simulator credit — up to 25 hours, or 50 at a part 142 training center — is unchanged; the Air Carrier Training Aviation Rulemaking Committee recommendation that would widen it dates from 2016 and has not been acted on in the window.
  • faa.gov is fully readable to curl with a browser User-Agent, unlike the rest of the DOT family, and its rulemaking pages carry no proposal on this subject.
Action
other
Object
1,500-hour flight experience requirement for copilots
ID
1730