To be fair, prior to the 1500 hour rule, the insurance companies dictated how many hours were the minimum. I'm not sure I knew anyone who could get into an "AT

To be fair, prior to the 1500 hour rule, the insurance companies dictated how many hours were the minimum. I'm not sure I knew anyone who could get into an "ATP" class (what is that, 10+ passenger?) aircraft with less than 800 hours. Depending on how the market was doing, 1000+ hours did not seem abnormal. Getting that 1500 hours now is usually by instructing students who are trying to kill you on a regular basis or dropping meat missiles on the weekend to build up the time. Not easy flying for sure. I've got a lot of respect for someone who did 500+ hours of instructing. The military guys program is very rigorous for the hours they spend in the air. I can't wait for things to thaw out enough to do some pleasure flying this Spring.