It’s a good thing that none of our opinions matter as far as who makes the best captain candidate. The fact of the matter is that there are good and bad pilots from all walks of life and operational experience. It’s very difficult to describe a hard and fast metric. I’ve flown military, part 135, and part 121 and have seen a wide degree of talent. There are some straight up garbage military pilots out there so let’s not bless them all with high praise just because. Meanwhile, at United, I’ve seen a number of captains that have been here for 30 years do things that just make me wonder. Since I’ve been both military and civilian I’m going to voice my preference for captain. Here it goes:

1) Able to hold a Captain vacancy
2) Able to pass Captain OE
3) Ability to think rationally (which is hard for many).

There are so many factors we could argue for years what makes the best captain.