Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
Just how much does 1000 more hours of touch and gos in a 152 really do to help someone prepare for airline command anyway? In my estimation it does nothing.
Plenty of low time pilots have been given command over the years and planes are not raining out of the sky. Almost always it is the crusty "know it all" old timer who drives it into the ground.
SkyHigh
Total time is nothing more than a number. During the 60’s eastern airlines hired pilots right out of training with something like 180 hours, and the same kind of thing with United. There were the good and the bad pilots. Regional’s used to have 1000 hours as a mark, but times are changing. When a sim instructors says most of the new hires, and upgrade captains can’t figure out simple holding entries it says more about the pilot than how much time you have. Just as you can sit right seat in a 152 and do about nothin, you can do the exact same thing in a jet. Its more on the pilot and how prepared they are, and how they stay proficient. Yeah you can probably get through a 121 training with low time, but then what happens when you get out to ioe, and go from operating at mostly class d and c airports, to nothing but class b airports. With more time in any aircraft you start to understand atc more, and how to conduct yourself professionally. But anyone can just sit in plane and do nothing, it depends on the person…just my newby 2 cents