The Australian Civil aviation safety Authority (CASA) is coming under fire from pilots for proposing a "co-pilot" license that would cut required solo-flying experience to only 10 hours. Current Australian law sets the requirement at 100 hours.

The proposal comes as CASA considers adopting international standards, which depend more heavily on simulated flight training. Pilots are questioning whether the simulated experience is as effective as actual flight training.

CASA is emphasizing that the license will be for co-piloting, not for pilots who are expected to fly solo. Spokesman Peter Gibson says the new licences would provide better training for co-pilots flying large passenger jets.

"The focus won't be on solo flying because these people are going to be trained to be co-pilots in large aircraft," he said. "In other words, they're working in a multi-crew environment," Gibson said.

"The emphasis is all going to be on training them to perform to the best possible way in that environment, not flying solo in little single engine aircraft."

The Federal Opposition has reported called for a Senate inquiry into the license proposal.

Opposition transport spokesman Kerry O'Brien said the 10-hour rule was a safety concern and called for the Senate inquiry into the proposal. "The hijackers who flew their planes into the World Trade Center had more flying hours than that," he said.

The World Today features a debate with CASA's Brian Gibson and President of the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, Captain Bryan Murray, moderated by Annie Guest.