I can tell what my experience was from back then, in 1997 in my class and the surrounding classes the low time guys were without exception fighter pilots. That’s not meant to be trashing on single seat or two seat guys at all, the fact of the matter was they tended to be the low time pilots. In my class of 21 there were 11 military with 5 or 6 being fighter/attack guys, the remainder were either previous major guys, TWA, UPS, AWA some ACMI and a couple of commuter, turbo prop folks with 5,000 plus hours and a good amount of PIC. The regional jet was just getting started back then so most were turbo prop pilots. I’d say the average experience level not counting fighter pilots was somewhere north of 5,000 hours with the high end being 10,000 plus and the fighter guys somewhere around 2,000 plus or minus.

Until fairly recently most of the RJ folks being hired were very experienced, and the average experience levels are currently dropping due to high demand. The issues that I’ve encountered are not RJ pilots with only several years experience, it’s the few that have been hired with next to zero real world flying time. We should not be hiring anyone who’s background is instructing in single engine pistons in perfect weather with less than 100 hours multi time and no turbine time. I’d much rather see a pilot who’s been flying in a situation where they’ve had to make go no go decisions, where they’ve had to decide to divert or continue, they’ve had some real world weather, ATC or mechanical issues to deal with etc etc, even if that pilot is flying slower piston equipment only.

Yes I agree that the resources we have available today make the job easier, however there is a certain level of background experience needed to develop critical decision making skills. No matter what kind of support or resources you’ve got available.