Originally Posted by Turbosina

Agreed. If there's one thing I've learned after a few decades in aviation, it's that you can't judge a book by its cover. We like to stereotype the "1500 hour riddle kids" as spiky-haired, earbud-wearing, backpack-toting, social-media-sharing, smartphone-obsessed, entitled brats. And yes, a few of them certainly do fit the stereotype. But by and large, the low-time, younger guys I've flown with have been consistently sharp and conscientious.

Similarly, I've flown with many super-senior CAs who were great mentors, really knew their craft, and were an absolute joy to fly with. But I've also flown with a few super-senior older guys (both CAs and senior FOs) whom I had to watch like a hawk. The few times where the airplane got close to an undesirable state, were mostly with super senior CAs who wouldn't listen to reason (like the guy who insisted on flying a heavy CRJ-700 at FL390 into mountain wave on a hot summer day, with the speed dialed all the way back to M .68 "so we can make a few bucks." Those of you who have flown that airplane will know just how sketchy of a situation that is.)

Having said all that, it got kinda old at my former shop (regional) to hear the 24-year-old FOs complain "Man I've been here 18 months and no legacies have called me yet." If I had a dollar for every time I heard that...