Originally Posted by
blakman7
Are you kidding? If I were a recruiter at Delta, I would hire a B1900 guy over an RJ guy any day of the week. The B1900 guy will know how to FLY the airplane because that's what they have to do with no autopilot. It's all RAW flying which would make that guy much more proficient. I'm not saying that an RJ guy doesn't know how to fly the airplane because that would simply be a lie but some RJ guys would be more apt to rely on automation rather than flying the darn airplane. I don't know who the hell told you that flying a jet takes more skill but I think that you're HIGHLY mistaken.
At ASA when the ATRs when away several pilots struggled mightily with the transition to the jet. One was fired. Flying the jet takes a very different skillet that some dont have. One of them being energy management. The TP will do anything you want it to at anytime. In the Jet you have to be ahead of the plane and configured before it will do what you want it to. For example, in the B1900 almost any pilot can comfortably do 250 to the marker. In the CRJ900, you need a seasoned pilot or it'll most likely end up in a go around
As far as hand flying, the king air series including the 1900 is one of the easiest hand flying airplanes in the world. A VERY stable aircraft. I'd have no problem hand flying it 6 legs a day. Now I can only speak for the crj, but flying it six legs a day would be a pain in the butt with all the artificial "pitch feel" feedback you get in the controls. To make a long story short, it's way more sensitive than your average TP, especially at higher altitudes with the higher speeds. The plane feels as if it was built to be flown with the AP on 90% of the time