Originally Posted by higney85
I do think though that in the next few years there will be an accident (not hoping, just thinking) and it will come down to inexperienced pilots. I do not know how a 1500 hour guy with 500 in type could be a CA.. I have right at the 1500/500 (not upgrading for a while so you dont need to worry) and I feel very comfortable and competent in the airplane in addition to the duties outside the airplane (such as knowing where we are taxiing, when things don't look right, etc) but I learn soo much every flight not just from the flight experience, but from the captains I fly with. After another year I think I will be ready, but right now I am still learning. I could only imagine dealing with DCA, LGA, JFK, PHL as a 250 hour FO- maybe that is why we hear the stories... I do give the guys credit though for making it through training, OE, and adapting to the line- thats a big jump.
There have been 1500hr captains at the "regionals" for a long time - they were just in a Beech 99, 1900, Jetstream or maybe a Saab. Even saying that, I doubt there will be many 1500hr captains in an RJ, even if upgrade minimums are that low.
My very first leg of IOE was PHL-ATL. Thank goodness I had been into busy airports before in a previous job, otherwise I can see how it would be intimidating dealing with the rapid-fire pace of calls and complex airport layouts. For somebody that hadn't been into anything bigger than a semi-busy Class C I could understand some major problems. Hopefully folks in that situation are VERY fast learners, otherwise they'll have no place in the cockpit of a 121 airliner.
Every time I'm waiting to depart 15 or 19 at DCA and watch an RJ make the turn at Rosslyn at what appears to be 2000' I wonder if there is a low-time FO at the controls...then I watch a CAL guppy do the exact same thing and realize no matter what seat we're in or what airplane we fly, we're always learning.