I flew the CRJ at Mesa before the ATP was required for F/O's. They had a flight academy that fed pilots into Mesa. I loved to do checkrides in the sim with those folks because they knew procedures inside out. But when it came to flying a visual pattern they were clueless. No sense of energy management at all. I frequently had to say "you really think we can get down from this altitude?" As an F/O (furloughed from USAirways mainline) I even had to correct a new Captain who upgraded from the Beech 1900 left seat. On a night visual he turned base way too soon and I had to remind him he didn't have those big props out there adding drag.

As a Captain I was worried about knowing when to take control from the F/O. I had never been an instructor. All my friends said "don't worry, you'll know". They were right. I was flying with a 500 hour F/O who had just finished IOE and almost all her landings were in the CRJ700 or 900, she just got the min required in the 200. We got slam dunked into 18R in CLT. She did mostly OK until she flared 50 feet too high. I saw the airspeed rapidly going below ref. Just like my friends said it was totally automatic, no thought process involved. If I had become incapacitated I don't think she could have landed the jet in one piece. Not her fault, they should have required more landings in the 200 since it's a very different picture from the 700/900 due to no leading edge slats.

They really need to keep the ATP requirement. As someone already posted it's just going to decimate the CFI ranks if they lower it.