I guess so.

 

Depends on the airplane maverick.

 

I think it's how much experience you have with regard to what type of flying you're going to be doing.

If I were hiring for an airline that only flew F-15's, I wouldn't hire a 55 yr old civilian guy with 20,000 hrs and 7 type ratings, I'd hire the 27 year old with 1500 hours in the F-15.

If I were an NFL owner that needed a Quarterback, I wouldn't draft a kicker to do the job.

FF

Right Rudder is over-rated anyway.

 

I agree with your post 110%. You can be trained by the best, and fly the hottest flying toaster in the sky, but each of us (should) learn more and more each year/each flight during our career...that IMHO makes us better pilots.

Good post,

FF

 

I agree, this dude is a joke. To think that you must hold an ATP before being a professional pilot whom you as a PAX will trust in the crew is RIDICULOUS

 

Was this thread about being the ace of the base, or rationalizing how HR (i.e. non-pilot) at airline X makes an arbitrary decision about who gets an interview?

 

experience equals experience.

hours allow the opportunity for experience.

theres been a time with everyone where you just have...a flight. nothing special, memorable, or worthy of remembering.

of course, everyone cant keep track of all aspects of a flight...so we just zero it down to a number.

im not defending low timers or high timers...im just saying that a number speaks nothing as to the character of the pilot.

 

There are a great many higher level examples of why experience is better. I have two specific examples I have learned in my short 3 years sitting in the right seat in the 121 world (before this I had 1,400 hrs dual given and about 1,200 hrs single-pilot IFR 135).

This cannot be directly correlated, however, I see two recurring things with captains that had little to no flight instructing before jumping into the air-carrier pond.

1) They micromanage like hell. The only micro-managers I have flown with did not flight instruct before flying 121. I figure by not flight instructing they didn't learn that it is ok to let the other person fly the plane a little different (as long as it is safe and within standards). I had one captain that was making glideslope low call-outs on me when we were 30 miles away in visual conditions (I was half a dot low). I was stabilized and waiting for the flaps to come in and balloon us up (which I was planning on doing around 12 miles).

2) I consistently see crooked landings from non-cfi captains. When I was instructing I learned a common mistake all pilots make is to not pull the yoke straight back in the flare. They ended up throwing a little bit of roll into things and compensated with rudder. These captains never had the opportunity to see this and learn from it and thus they aren't able to recognize when they do it. By the way, these landings are within standards and safe, they are just sloppy, so I don't mention anything (I am not going to nit-pick any captains, especially ones that are already trying to micromanage me).

 

...All very valid points. Additionally, I believe the almighty power of the $ speaks when it comes to experience. INSURANCE. Many companies (corporate, charter, cargo and airline segments of the industry) set their minimums according to what their insurance companies advise. In the corporate world where I fly, I know a pilot with an ATP is about 30% cheaper to insure than a pilot with, say, only 1000 hours.

I can only imagine the insurance costs for companies whose new-hires average less than 1,000 total time. Big-time $. Higher time = less $ to insure. Lower time = more $ to insure.

The mighty $ speaks volumes ladies and gentlemen.

 

HR doesn't have a surefire way of knowing the kind of flying or experience your may have gained from it, unless you have had a previious 121 or 135 job. So hours are the only way to judge experience and a 1000 hour pilot is more experienced than a 400 hour pilot. Flying skills are another thing that can't be judged from a resume. You might think with your 500 hours that your the mac daddy but with 3000 you will be better. BTW, I am the ace of the base! That being said we've all seen 10,000 hour guys that couldn't compete with students we've just soloed, and the same people freak with a master warning.