Young kids straight out of high school don't belong in the cockpit?
Well...I'm not straight out of high school, I've been out a few years....am a college student and I'm a low timer....
Are you saying that I don't belong in the cockpit?
If I would do the CFI route for a few hundred hours....are you saying that my decision making skills are miraculously a lot better? Sure, because Mrs. Jones next to me helped me out in that department quite a lot.
The CFI ticket let's you build time and sure you learn a lot. But how much? How much do you learn that would be usefull flying in the airlines? Sure someone with a commercial ticket which all his 400 hours consisted of weekend buzzing shouldn't belong in the cockpit. But someone who comes from a professional flight school.....in which most of the hours are long x/c flights in some of the worst weathers....or how about 200 of those hours come from 135ops? Does that make a difference in being called "low time and in-experienced?"
So you needed 3000hours....Others needed a 0 less.
Becoming a figher pilot now versus becoming one during world war1.....
Do you think that was wrong also?
Would you rather have that young low time pilot sitting next to you or would you rather he finish college in aviation management or something and whoa! He's your boss now ;-) Now who's really getting screwed?

 

"Can we stop Complaining and accept the low time pilot thing?"

I don't see how. Get used to it. If you're a 300 hour guy it's going to be following you around for a while....

Yes, being a CFI makes you a better pilot. And no, "seniority is not everything", if that comes at the expense of putting a well qualified individual into the right seat. 300 hours doesn't cut it.

 

We love to complain! Hell, I bet a the most senior guy at SWA, or UPS, or CAL, or any big boy airlines has something to complain about.................were humans, and we are living in the age of "Entitlement" ME, ME, ME. The only complaint I have is that I have 15 days off in a row thanks to trip trading and I dont knowvwhat flavors of Gelato I am going to inhale when I get to Italy on my Free Vacation pass, thanks to CAL, Life isnt all bad, and neither is the job, take the good with the bad, and do the best you can, just because I complain, doesn't mean I don't appreciate what I have, or what I do.........

 

yes it is ...

 

Want to solve the problem or just complain about it?

The easiest solution is to petition the FAA to require more hours to get an ATP. 3000? 4000? Who knows? This will force "young" pilots to spend more time in the right seat learning from the Old Heads before they are ready to command the airplane by themselves.

 

Well said, however, I am willing to bet the airlines would fight a petition like that.

 

Just requiring an ATP to fly Part 121 would be sufficient in my book.

 

There is quite a bit be learned operating in the real system... no "professional flight school" is going to provide training that susbstitutes for that. Remember, the "high-end" (ie high priced) flight schools sell you a load of BS in order to justify that $90K student loan.
A private pilot with 1000 hours is usually better than a "professional flight school" graduate with 300. The 1000 hour cfi is even better, someone who has 1000 hours and a 135 checkout on advanced equipment is better still.

No one will argue that the US military has the best flight training program in the world (in part due to their ability to boot out those who don't excel). But the big airlines still require even US military pilots to have 1000+ hours.

There are lot's of folks out there who have more perspective on this than you do...when you have 2000 hours you'll know what I'm talking about.

 

There is no substitute for experience. You learn things on your own that no one can show you. You will have some sticky situations come up in "real world" flying that can't be shown to you at a pilot factory. 500 hrs is better than 300, 1000 is better than 500 and 2000 is better than a 1000. The point is that you learn everytime you fly. When you have a thousand hours, you will probably look back at how rough your skills were at 300. Teaching, cargo, part 91 corporate, charter; all of these will offer diverse experience that is impossible to recreate in the training environment. Its also fun to fly this type of stuff. I flew a 310 and a malibu for a local doctor while I was in college and he had vacation houses in mexico, belize and roatan, honduras. Flying to those places was a blast as well excellent experience (non-radar, bad weather, no nexrad, only metars and tafs, and poor comms). The quick finish flight school environment is too restrictive to allow you to gain the valueable experience making tough decisions that are necessary to safely operate an aircraft in an all weather environment as the pilot in command.

 

Aren't these 300 hour wonder kids shooting themselves in the foot when it comes time get that ATP? Seems you would be a little short on the PIC requirements... Besides, if you get hired at XYZ airlines when you are 19 or 20, you're stuck riding shotgun until you're at least 23 ANYWAY. Or are there ways around those requirements?