Originally Posted by
saturn
Its just a name. They could have called it a Transport Pilot in Command rating, would that also have solved the problem? There is not much difference to the ATP ride in a piston twin than a commercial multi ride either, its essentially a repeat checkride. Very little about the testing standards would make one truly more airline ready. Lets remember the PIC was PF on the Colgan accident, and how he pulled back without releasing back pressure through a shaker and pusher. The FO had more than 1500 hrs. Common practice then in recurrent training was a power out of a stall recovery while maintaining altitude. A 1500 hr FO is the solution from right field, hence knee-jerk. Almost seems as if the next time a regional had an accident this rule was on the waiting list, even if the FO had 10000 hrs.
Let's talk about Renslow, since you brought him up. Do you know what his history is?
He started out like we all do, as a student pilot. That means that aside from a few solo hours, there's always someone next to him to bail him out if he should make a truly disastrous decision. He passed (eventually) the necessary check-rides and earned a Commercial certificate.
He then paid for training at Gulfstream. This means that as an FO, he always had someone next to him to catch any major blunders, or unsafe decisions.
He then got hired at Colgan. As an FO. And the Captain was always there to bail him out, should he screw up in a seriously massive way.
He then upgraded. He was flying left-seat in a part 121 operation, having spent very few hours having to actually make his own decisions in an airplane. And almost zero hours in an environment where his decisions were actually the ones that would stick.
To be honest, one of the biggest lessons I learned from being a CFI was built over time. It was the emphasis and clarification that the only level of safety that was going to be enforced, was mine. There's no one else to help anymore. Looking back, that was absolutely invaluable time spent as PIC. Not just flying around by myself where I can control (mostly) the situations that arise, but by flying with new and different people consistently, who will always do the unexpected.