Originally Posted by Castle Bravo

While you can certainly think it is ludicrous that 1700 fighter jocks get hired before 10,000 TT RJ captains, the people who really matter in this discussion, aka the HR guys, do not think it is ludicrous. They obviously value the experience of those 1700 F-whatever dudes and dude-ettes industry-wide, so by the current HR standards, I guess it's not ludicrous.

Yes, they don't have 121 time, but their CRM goes well beyond 121 CRM of "I'm the CA and I'd like it done THIS way." There is no such thing as "single seat." They fly in formations of 2 or 4, and if you think CRM is a challenge cross-cockpit, try it amongst 4 cockpits at the same time. As for hi-density airports, consider flying into Nellis AFB at a night Red Flag mission with 80 aircraft recovering in 18 minutes and someone crumps the runway while you have 9 minutes of fuel left. Or Elmendorf AFB (Anchorage AK) in the same scenario, but it's -12 F at night with terrain and the "Low Fuel" light is blinking. Or Afghanistan, landing on a blacked-out airfield using NVGs because the airport is being shelled and you have the Low Fuel light on. Or at night on the carrier with a pitching deck, and an emergency going on. Obviously HR, industry wide, prefers this caliber of pilot at 1700 hrs TT to those with thousands more of autopilot time.

I'm not a F-guy, and I like to pick on them at the bar as much as the next dude, but there is a valid reason why they skip the RJs and go straight to the mainline carriers, and it ain't just the "Good 'Ol boy network."