Wow, 9 pages. Must be a hot button issue.
It's not that one cannot learn to physically operate an RJ with very little total flight time - the airplanes are *****cats (as long as you stroke the fur in the right direction!). Motor skills are not the issue.
Decision making is the issue. Learning those skills is a process of 1) You have a job to do...the boxes or whatever have to get to their destination. Everyday. The Boss wants you to go, rain or shine. 2) Making the decisions about how much weight, how much fuel, how bad the weather, when you can go and when you'd be a fool to do so. All eyes are on you to balance operational commitment vs. safety. A remark was made about a 777 Capt not flying a Navajo because of his "good judgement". The 777 Captains I know have spent a lengthy career making decisions about how to practically extract the most utility from every machine they've been tasked to fly - Navajos are flown in bad weather every day. The pilots who fly them live, learn or die by the decisions they make. 300hr pilots hired to right seat of a RJ have cheated themselves of this vital apprenticeship.

Big difference between insuring someone as PIC than SIC. Also the airlines are not just insuring one or two corporate planes. They are insuring a whole fleet. Part 121 have established training programs, maintenance programs, procedures etc... that lead to a statistically safer way to fly versus 91.

Just part of my guess. Only way to really find out is to ask the statisticians and bean counters that come up with Part 91 insurance policies. Why do young males have to pay more $$ for the same auto insurance coverage??.. crock of &%*@!!

As to the original thread starter, it's anyone's guess what hiring minimums will be if and when hiring resumes. I think Eagle's hiring minimums dropped about 3-4 times over the course of 12 months last year. The minimums fluctuate based on the recruiting departments success or lack there of.

My best friend's retarded 8 year old cousin could fly an RJ!

There that should be good for at least another 10 pages.:)

that just made my day...im still laughing

The 8 year old could probably fly ANY modern jet.... it isn't hard.
ADM, and knowing when NOT to fly are the hard things.

I think that the time depends on the person as well. I was hired with 450 hours pilot flight time and did not have too many problems, I also had 2000 hours in airplane as a Naval Flight Officer and an instructor. I have seen guys with good air sense with 100 hours flight time and guys who absolutely did not belong in an airplane with the same amount of time (sorry to my Marine Brother who had to deal with them in the RAG, we tried to get them out). I have also seen people with hundreds of hours in an airplane who had no business being there. We had an ANG guy in a class ahead of me in training, just got his wings and had to wait for a slot for C-130 Training Squadron. So he hired in at a regional to get a seniority number. He was lazy and took the attitude, "I did it in the military, this is easy". He had a hard time getting through sims and took his check ride twice. So my advice is you have had good training....put in the hard work at training and you should be ok. If you kick back you will struggle.

Again I am not condoning or rejecting it; I am simply playing by the rules that are in effect. I am not going to get into a ****ing match about my training either.

Being honest though, how many plane crashes have occured while the captain was in the forward lav? I understand your point though, and if some of these low-time guys are not up to standard then let them go.

I think that a large part of the problem are the pilot mills that churn out pilots way too quickly. Training in places with clear 10sm every day doesn't really help either. I have met some of these guys from these places who have 700tt and 1 hour of actual.

That being the said, I believe that the most important thing a pilot can do is never quit learning. When someone at ANY amount of experience quits or refuses to keep learning then they become just as dangerous.

I don't think that it is so much the pilot mills that's the problem as much as some of the people coming through them. I went through one of those "mills" to get my instrument through MEI. I however was a private pilot for quite a while prior and enjoyed flying alone or with my buddies and just being up in the air. I personally know that there is so much more to flying than what is taught in these big schools and I aim to keep on learning. The problem is that quite a few of these students come through and somehow believe that what they learned at this school is the end-all, be-all, of flying. The looks of shock on their face when I told some of them that yes, you can in fact land a c-172 in a 23 knot crosswind (that 15kts was max demonstrated and not a rule) or when I told them that yes, you CAN forward slip a C-172 with full flaps and they told me it was against the rules (I had to explain the difference between "avoid" and prohibited". One of them said that if this technique was done you would fall out of the sky and die.) is all kind of scary. Now I am not trying to sound like I know all about aviation because I do not, not by a long shot, but a lot of these schools are telling these students that these techniques are gospel, instead of simply ONE way of doing things.

These attitudes sound a lot like what some of you are saying you are running into in the cockpit.

Doing a forward slip in a cessna with full flaps is a bandaid for bad technique to begin with. But yes, it can be done and you will not die.

I know that; if you are judging your glide, remaining distance, height, etc, you shouldn't have to use the technique. Just was saying it can be done, and even so in my opinion it should probably be taught anyway. If one happened to possibly make those errors that could lead to an emergency situation where you are now high with no power, they should know that technique is available to them.