Originally Posted by
jayray2
I am sensing some sarcasm. I think the point was if you are hired as a part 121 two pilot operation with 250 hours you have actually not developed any piloting skills. How many hours do you think this guy had in an airplane by himself actually making decisions by himself? Very few. I am going out on a limb here, if this guy had instructed until he had 1000 hours this accident would have never happened. As an instructor he would have developed the skills required to pilot an aircraft properly and he would have not driven that plane into the ground. Lets be honest with ourselves, as part 121 pilots our actual piloting skills are probably not of the quality that they were when we were instructing/hauling cargo in planes without autopilots practicing real piloting, 121 flying is easy. My true piloting skills that form my base as a pilot were developed well before flying in the 121 world. Without that base, well you see what can happen. Just my opinion, right or wrong.
If it is easy or not depends on what you are flying and how you are flying.
If you are hand flying a CRJ (has no auto throttle) every approach from way before intercepting final approach course and hand flying every climbout up to 18000 you will develop good skills or bether skills (just to clarify. You should already have good skills before even flying a CRJ) and much better than sitting as a CFI watching a student hour after hour. Handflying a CRJ or any other jet below FL200 in bad weather all the time can be a handful and developes for sure good skills.
121 is easy (after a while) if you put the autopilot at 600ft after t/o and let also the autopilot shoot the entire approach. Then you are just pushing buttons and not actually flying, you are managing. It is all up to you and what you make of it. The hard part of 121 can be the airports ground and ramp operations like LAX, ORD, ATL. You will never get training in that being a CFI.
just my 2 cents