Originally Posted by RI830

We get all amped up about the number of hours a pilot may have when hired, but why is that the only matrix that we judge a pilot off of?
Number of hours is only a measure of how long he/she has mindlessly sat in an airplane. It doesn't prove how good of a stick they are, how their decision making capabilities are or whether they can get themselves out of a wet paper sack when asked.

I'm not in favor of dropping the hours to any particular level, but finding a way to assess a pilots skill set prior to plopping them into an RJ. Majors have video interviews, in person interviews and psych tests to gain an understanding of their decision making and persona. A sim session should always be required to include more than the standard pattern to a landing.
I've seen guys with 500 hrs who out fly guys with 2500 hrs. And I've seen 10,000 guys who can't make an assertive decision to save their lives. So to say a guy who has 1500 hrs is suddenly qualified to fly is a joke. In these crashes, there were two people in the cockpit, not just a low time FO.....where is the legislation to increase PIC mins? Many regionals are upgrading guys in 6-12 months, I find this far more dangerous than hiring a guy with only 1000-1200 hrs

Just my 0.02 cents