That is an excellent point, but trying to speak sense into many of these APC-dwellers is futile!

Yeah, I liked that too. Also, I liked where they talked about "You may book it on a major carrier but get a local airline instead (while they show a Saab and then a SWA 73 going by. Yup. Local.)". I did find the "Local Airline" comment funny too. What about the airlines that cover two thirds of the country? Is that local?

This is nothing new and unfortunately our industry is too complex to explain to the layman. I don't have a big problem with it as long as people recognize their own limitations, so that I don't have somebody sitting in the right seat talking about how they can do something when they really aren't able to. Be honest, nobody will think less of you.

"Military pilots have relatively few flight hours and they fly nukes around"

Apples and Oranges. I had a chat about this with my last F/O, who was ex-F15 and instructed in the AF. He says 3 million to select and train an AF pilot to fly around in the right seat of a tanker. Military selects and trains to a much higher standard.

"the FO only really needs to be able to fly the plane and thats what the training teaches"

I expect more than that out of an F/O. Once you get in the left seat, you'll see what I mean....

de727 is right as well - I expect myself to be able to Captain the Aircraft if something ever happened to the Boss next to me...if you don't think you are up to that task, you shouldn't be up there!

I am a Station Agent here in BNA and just last week I had 2 pax that had read an article talking about how TSA's mins were down to 250 and wanted to know how many hours the FO had on their flight to STL. So of course when they found out their FO was on IOE with roughly 280 hrs they had to be convinced it was safe to fly, and guess what...they made it there and back alive.

I love the media... they do alot to make my job easier ;)

Ya, take Basic Indoc, Systems, and Sims, multiply the difficulty by 1.5 and do it for 13 months (If you're lucky enough to be one of the 5% of applicants that even get in)...then you get to actually start school for the airframe you'll actually go to war in, and repeat the above for another 6 months to become a "low time pilot carrying nukes.":rolleyes:

This is the original story and it blames 3 of the 5 on pilot error.
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S331920.shtml?cat=1&v=1

Military selects and trains to a much higher standard.

That is my point- the fact that a pilot has few hours doesnt necessarily indicate ability or inabilty to do a job. Flying an RJ is not as difficult as war fighting so naturally the training is less intense, but the concept still applies.

"the FO only really needs to be able to fly the plane and thats what the training teaches"

I expect more than that out of an F/O. Once you get in the left seat, you'll see what I mean....[/quote]

My feeling is that if as an FO I am expected to be able to perform all the Captain's duties and make "Captain"-type decisions as if he/she wasn't there then I want Captain pay.

Im pretty sure in your FM theres a part that states the Captains duties and responsibilities and those of the FO. In mine it says that the FOs job is "to assist the Captain..." not be the Captain. That happens over time. Yes it's the FOs responsibilty to develop into a Captain, but thats different than showing up to training ready to sit left seat.

"regionals have much different standards for pilots"


requirements yes, standards no.

And not to mention the fact that moving "up" with experience is the way it's done in almost any technical career field. NASCAR drivers, for instance, don't start in Cup cars. They race some local mess to break in, try to get a ride in the Nationwide Series or whatever they call it now, and then try to end up in the Cup race. Heck, even at McBurgerdy's you start sweeping, then move up to fries, then finally get to cook a burger. What do they think the option to gaining work experience is?!? In utero training? The baby pops out with ATP, 5000TT, PIC, turbine? :eek: