Originally Posted by MAXjetPilot767
The D.0. was a former CRJ, B737, and A320 Cpt at Midway Airlines as well as a LCA and APD. He is an extremely competent and capable individual as well as a very decent person.
Being good or qualified or having the right attitude is not guaranteed by pedigree. In fact one legacy almost had their NAT/MNPS op spec pulled because they piloted an L1011 off their track and had a near miss with another airline. The LCA at the airline had to go through the international school at a much smaller airline who at the time had a fleet of only 6 767's. Somehow this mostly regional airline was recognized as having one of the best International school programs despite its background operating YS11s, F28s, 737s and 727s.
Well, I'm not bad-mouthing the guy, just making an outsider's observation. I will say this: There is NO substitute for experience.
Regarding your sentence about a legacy carrier's L1011 off track, that would be DELTA, and when they took over Pan Am's JFK-Europe routes, over 23 of them, they then had many career-domestic pilots flying trans-oceanic routes on the NATS. They still hold the all-time record for NAT-track deviations in a single year, which is sizable. Any other airline, without such a powerful Congressional lobby would lose their NAT-track privelages, but Delta was able to keep it by attending the best trans-oceanic navigation school going at the time. It wasn't Piedmont, that must have been an urban legend. Delta's IP's had to attend TWA's international course, and the FAA so much as documented it. I happen to have flown with many Check Airmen who taught that course. Oh, and the Advisory Circular from FAA regarding ETOPS? It was written by, tested by and pioneered by TWA B-767 Check Airmen, as TWA pioneered ETOPS in February '85, flying 767s from BOS, STL, JFK and IAD to LHR, CDG and FRA.
As far as your comment regarding Class II/ETOPS flying to be 'easy', I don't agree. I've flown over 400 oceanic crossings in the past 12 years, Atlantic/Pacific/Indian oceans, and I've never had that attitude about it. I've always been conscientious, mis-trusting and a little bit anal about flying ETOPS flights, because there is just so much that can go wrong. I would never have a non-chalant "This is cake"-type attitude when dispatched to fly across an ocean with just 2 engines. Sure, it's safe and can be done, but I'm a little weary of it, and I always will be.