Originally Posted by duvie

Being a good pilot is about composure, perspective and respect. As I'm sure you've seen almost anybody can be taught to manipulate flight controls.

A good pilot must have composure in all situations, especially emergencies. As an airline pilot you will face hairy situations like ILS down to mins with low fuel. As a flight instructor you may deal with a student losing control of the A/C during a crosswind landing close to the ground. Some people have this trait at 250 hours, some need to build confidence in themselves to get composure, quite a few never have it and get frantic in tough situations.

You also need to have perspective. When sorting out a tough situation while in the air, sometimes you need to put priority on a few key issues and learn to put the rest on hold. When a real emergency comes up you never want to act too quickly, but often a timely decision must be made. Composure is a prerequisite for perspective.

Finally you need to have respect. You must appreciate the roles of all crew members, company employees, controllers, etc. Interpersonal relationships and CRM make up the vast majority of your day. If you can learn how to be tactful, assertive, polite and respectful at the same time then you'll be great!

The bottome line is, the jump from a skyhawk to a RJ is going to be a big one no matter how many hours you have. Fact is, some people are ready for it sooner than others. You may have the skills needed right now, some may have them at 800 hours, some may never get them (but will still be out there flying jets). 600 TT with 250 Jet is going to make you a lot more competitive at XJet than 600 TT with 300 dual given. But if you do go for a regional at 250 hours, make sure you're ready because a lot of people aren't ready for them that soon and failing training is never a good thing