For the average GA pilot, who might only fly a few hours a month, one might (if they start young enough) accumulate 1,000 hours of flight time in their entire lifetime. I personally expect, if I live and fly long enough, to accumulate between 1,500 - 2,000 during my life.
I hear other pilots being referred to as "low-time" pilots, even though they have 300 hours over 5 years of flying.
So at what point is someone in the GA world not a "low-time" pilot? How many hours?
I just don't think this is defined in recreational flying (which I assume is what you meant by "GA pilot").
The FAA considers pilots with above 1,500 hours to be high-time:
The FAA's desire is that by the time a pilot has their 1500 hours they have developed enough skill proficiency, aeronautical knowledge, and understanding of airport operations to make better and safer decisions in the air. source
When getting a job, there are some that are considered suitable for "low-time pilots" (probably on their way to those commercial jet jobs). Low-time might be those under 500 hours:
In general, low-time pilot jobs are filled by pilots who have fewer than 500 flight hours or less. source
Studies have been done of predicting accident rates based on total flight hours, which might well hint at which point you become a safer pilot.
Is there a range of pilot flight hours over which general aviation (GA) pilots are at greatest risk? More broadly, can we predict accident rates, given a pilot’s total flight hours (TFH)?
With a broad conclusion that accident rates do seem to tail off quite dramatically somewhere around the 1,500 hour mark - quite probably the reason why the FAA use this number.
Anecdotally, at around 400 hours I very much consider myself a "low-time pilot". I am also consciously aware from speaking to peers that 300-1000 hours is where pilots feel (over-)confident in their ability, and possibly make the most mistakes.
“Low time“ is a relative term. If the FAA is considering a person with 1500 hours to be a “high time pilot“ you’re kind of at the bottom of the barrel in terms of pecking order in the airlines. I have a friend out in Idaho, who is a retired 747 captain with over 35,000 flight hours over a 40 year long career.
Military pilots have considerably fewer hours. A person with a 15 to 20 year long career as a pilot in the armed services may only hold less than 4000 hours total time, simply because of the cost to operate some of their aircraft.
High time may also be relative to your competitiveness in terms of hire ability. Even a 1500 hour pilot may not be competitive to be hired by many companies, particularly if those hours are largely accrued in light single engine airplanes with a little to no multi engine and/or turbine time. Flight environments, locations where time was logged, seasons, weather, instrument flying experience, night flying experience, type ratings and familiarity with different aircraft types and avionics all come in to play here as well.
