I have to disagree, this once, with you Rick... And agree with Bahamasflyer.
Give me the former Metroliner II Captain or the Navajo pilot who routinely shot approaches to mins 5 days a week with no autopilot, no anti-skid over the jet jock, with maybe no piston or turboprop time, who has auto throttles, auto brakes, duty rigs, A fund, B fund, union protection, ASAP, FOQA, whatever.
No shock cooling and cowl flaps like in Pistons, no condition levers, no worrying if one prop will grab more than the other resulting in asymmetrical reverse.. Jets are INFINITELY easier than Pistons or turboprops. Uh oh, too fast and/or high? Deploy lift dump.. Uh oh, too slow? No problem, jets have power to spare comparatively. Sure, things move faster and energy management takes a little time to master, but I promise you that I was never challenged as a Part 121 Turbojet pilot like I was when I was flying freight in Pistons and Turboprops (The jets in 135 were the safest) or 91K fractionals. It reminds me of the show on the worlds most challenging airports.... SXM is on there but Aspen and Teluride are not!?!? The show should have been renamed Worlds Most Challenging Airports that have airline service since it was obviously 121 pilots that were doing most of the voting. Even back in the '60s, my Dad said that the Jet guys at AA thought that they were better than the DC-7 and Electra guys. This continued into the 90's and 00's with the turbojet people thinking that they had a tougher gig, requiring more skill than the the Saab, Metro, ATR, BE-99 pilots. Wrong, IMHO.
When I hear someone flying a turbojet say something similar, I always ask them if they ever flew a piston or turboprop for a living. I guess you can tell what my background is, LOL.
