Having went to Gulfstream is not a "shortcut". All it means is they had money to burn and chose to buy time instead of working for it.

Or do you mean to say that anyone who took a non instructing job with a fresh commercial took a shortcut. Because there are plenty of pilots out there that started in the airlines with 250 hours. Are they all shortcut pilots too?

Gulfstream was the same as any other regional except they allowed people to buy a job as an FO to build time instead of paying them.

Also on a side note, everyone loves to attack the Captain of CJC3407 because he messed up. We are not perfect, it very well could be you who makes a stupid mistake and gets killed. Or do you mean to say you could never make a mistake? I doubt he crashed that plane simply because he bought some time at Gulfstream or failed a couple checkrides.

Having said all that, I did not go to Gulfstream or any pay to play scheme and nor do I approve of the practice. Simply because it hurts our profession not because I think pilots that go to to those places are any less skilled.