Originally Posted by flapshalfspeed

I for one am overwhelmingly in favor of this requirement, and I think they should be way more restrictive (Mesa's reqs are less restrictive than any regional I am aware of). You have absolutely zero business being in command of an airliner with only 1,000 hours of 121 time and nothing else but 1,500 hours in a prop plane/CFIing. You haven't had your ass handed to you enough times, and you haven't had enough time to really, truly develop the instincts/self-knowledge required to be in that seat.

And honestly, if you think you're ready to be a Captain on an EJet/700/900 after 1 year of flying 121--with no other similar experience whatsoever--you're just going to hurt your career in the long-run. Taking command at that level of experience puts you at a much higher risk of accidents, incidents, and violations. How are you going to take the controls from a new hire FO when the plane slips over to the edge of the runway in a 35 knot xwind gust--with any authority--when you're basically still a new hire yourself? And have never landed in a 35 knot crosswind in a jet yourself?

Put a guy on reserve in PHX for 1-year (ppl are holding it out of new hire now), throw him in a left seat exactly 1,000 hours later, and he's done what? Maybe 1 landing on a contaminated runway? Maybe 3-5 approaches at the end of a max FDP in blowing snow at 1600 RVR at night? Maybe a handful of diversions/holds where he actually had to pay attention to his fuel status? How many go-arounds/real emergency situations has he ecountered? One? Zero?

I'm terrified of the current experience level at which Mesa allows people to upgrade--let's not go any lower.