FAA Clarifies R-ATP Rule for Recent College Grads

Stephen Pope

Friday, January 31, 2014 at 12:08 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The FAA has clarified the Restricted Airline Transport Pilot (R-ATP) certificate requirements for recent aviation college graduates, allowing them to become first officers with 1,000 flight hours instead of 1,500.
Eligibility for the R-ATP is not automatically granted through a five-year look-back period from college curriculum approval, as many graduates had believed.
Recent graduates must obtain a "certifying statement" from their institution, which can only be issued after the school receives FAA authorization for its degree program and completes individual transcript reviews.
Some past graduates may still not meet the R-ATP requirements, and their schools are currently seeking exemptions from the FAA for these specific cases.

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The FAA has further clarified what the new Restricted Airline Transport Pilot (R-ATP) certificate might mean for recent college graduates.

The new rules require airline first officers to hold an ATP and to have logged 1,500 hours of flight time, or an R-ATP license and 1,000 hours if they’ve graduated from an approved four-year aviation college. Many recent grads have been under the impression that they could be grandfathered under the R-ATP rule if they earned their degree within five years of their college receiving FAA curriculum approval. The FAA now says that while that route might be possible, it won’t be a simple rubber-stamp affair.