We're not talking about the difference between 5000TT and 2000TT.

We're talking about 38 hours of multi-engine experience. 38.

In another post 9 hours of multi-engine experience. 9.

9 hours in an apache doing VMC demo's and suddenly we're way qualified to (I can't believe i'm going to use this analogy) be a heartbeat away from command of a 50,000 pound jetliner with 50+ passengers and crew aboard.

Look, bottom line is this. A first officer is not an apprentice sitting to in the right seat waiting to be blessed with any kernels of aviation knowledge the Captain chooses to impart upon them. They are a valued flight crewmember who is there to back-up the Captain and to insure that safety is not compromised. In order to do that job effectively, one has to pull knowledge and experience from their bags of tricks. That experience can come from several places. Sure, it's not ideal if that 2000TT was gained in the traffic pattern in a 172. But if that 2000TT came from a pilot who was a CFI for a bit... maybe a multi-engine instructor who was scared a time or two... maybe that person went on to become a CFII who was scared a time or two....then that person went and flew freight for a few hundred hours and was scared a time or ten.

Those experiences build confidence in ones-self. They also open the eyes of most pilots to look at the operation critically and to learn to use a pilot's most valuable word -- "No". Generally speaking the low-time SJS crowd will go along with whatever the Captain says. Whereas the former freight dog, or CFI, or charter pilot has had at least a FEW runins with the Chief Pilot where he had to say, "No. The airplane is not moving."

I spent 11 years+ in the right seat and if there is one thing that I learned from that experience it is that the right seat is NOT a passenger seat. It is not an observer's seat. It is a crewmember's seat.

Now, I agree with Deadstick. I don't blame the pilots for 9 hour or 38 hour pilots. I blame the FAA for not requiring at LEAST part 135 minimums for an SIC in part 121 -- and I blame the insurance companies for not requiring higher minimums.

If you had a corporate CRJ...Challenger or Global Express, do you think you would be able to insure a copilot with 38 hours of multi-engine time? If you were it would certainly not be cheap! Those of you who are finding offense in this line of discussion need to step back and look at this critically. It is not an attack on you. It is an attack on a system that has degraded to the point that it is now prepostrous. 250 TT and 9 ME? This person has no business in the right seat of a transport category jet -- and it's only a matter of time before that becomes the last link in the chain of errors leading to disaster.

Like I said, i'm a former Bluestreaker so this isn't personal.