First of all there hasn't been a wet commercial hire in probably 2 years at a regional, so that means that they could possibly have 2000 hours by today. And second, those guys were in the minority. It's become the norm now, the 200 hour wonders this and 200 wonder that. But the reality, was VERY hard to get some kind of advanced flying with a wet commercial. The people that did are a small percentage that went to advanced training, that were really trained only to fly the CRJ or ERJ. Yes I wouldn't get near them if they're flying a 172 solo but as far as airline procedures they were certainly more prepered for their job than a street guy flying laps in the pattern. Yes there were many of us that didn't get a CFI but it didn't mean that we were 200 hour wonders.

I've seen 500 hour guys with no CFI that were excellent in training because all they did was fly IFR XC and I've seen 1500 VFR CFIs that were afraid to hand fly an airplane with no FD, and a bunch of other examples. It all depends on the individual and also the training they've had. 1500 hour is just a number, it doesn't mean anything.


Colgan crash FO had a 2200 hours and was hired with 1700. The CA had 3500. So 5700 combined.

Comair crash they had thousands.

Show us an accident that was caused by a 200 hour wonder.