Originally Posted by
DirkDiggler
How long was your upgrade? There are far too many guys who upgraded in like 1-2 years and are now critical of the possibility of upgrading at 1,000 hours of 121. But I do agree at least 4 years of experience seems to be a well rounded threshold.
I still can't imagine how it was legal to have a 1500 hour captain with an ATP and a green guy in the right seat with 250 hours and a commercial. It's no wonder more accidents occurred back in the day.
When I was hired I was told 5-8 years. It was 18 months.
Did I have any accidents? No. But at the same time I’d been flying military, part 91 and 135 single pilot/no autopilot for 12 years when I was hired. My first upgrade was in the ATR-72- like a big 172 with two engines. Very docile, no swept critical wing. Things did not happen very fast in an ATR.
Still, I will be the first to say I probably could have used another year or two especially as I didn’t fly much on reserve and yes, I was paired with 250 hour FOs.
Balanced against that, however, I had very experienced instructors who had been in the industry over 15 years. Now we have guys becoming instructors after one year. It’s the blind leading the blind.
I’ll also be the first to say that the absence of an accident is not a sign of safety, so my statement that a four year upgrade may have been safer.