Define "experience"
 

It seems that in the wake of the 3407 crash the word "experience" has come frequently in reference to that flight crew. I'm just curious what everyone else out there thinks makes an "experienced" pilot. People assume that someone with high time is experienced. How much time makes a pilot experienced, or in other words, what amount of TT would have made that Colgan crew experienced?

That's just it, TT doesn't automatically make someone experienced, although that is the largest part of the picture. The quality of time and what that pilot has experienced within the confines of that time is what counts. There are "experienced" 1,000 hour pilots out there that have had all hands on flying in bad weather in all conditions, etc. The military is the most common place where you would see this, but it is also common in the civilian world too.

On the other end of the spectrum, you might have a pilot with 3,000 flight hours flying in good weather and been lucky enough to not have any emergency situations. This pilot has more total time, but I think the 1,000 hour pilot mentioned above would be better equipped to handle a bad situation in adverse weather.

It is hard to quantify 'experience' when listing total time, but logic would dictate that they go hand in hand. There are clearly situations when this is not the case, so the quality of the flight time is also very important. The personality of the pilot is another factor among other things... in the end, it just depends.

Experience
 

"We all start out with two Bags. One is a Bag full of Luck and the other is an empty Bag of Experience. The trick is to fill the Bag of Experience before you empty the Bag of Luck."
- Author Unknown

That's a very tricky question. I think Driver answered it pretty well, but I will never forget when one of my friends at PSA was about to upgrade and told me on the phone that he had never had to deice and was worried about being the one in charge when that time came. I think as far as acting PIC in a 121 environment goes, it should at least take 2 full seasons in all kinds of weather conditions to be considered Experienced. (I say this because when I was hired I had no icing or thunderstorm experience myself!)

"Experience" is just a name we give our mistakes.

Experience is gaining knowledge by actually participating in the process. Experience doesn't make a good pilot, the pilots ability to critically think and use his experience is what makes a good pilot.

Entry level seat
 

As Yogi said, "You can observe a lot just by watching." A year or two as a 727 or DC-8 S/O helped a lot of new-hire pilots gain experience in the past, but that seat is pretty much extinct. (During a stagnation, some of us got to ride sideways for six years or more, which was too much of that experience.) :p

I have 4800 hours (and 6 winters) in the right seat of a CRJ interacting and learning from 20+year Captains.

Oddly, most major airline hiring boards would consider a 500 PIC second-year GoJet Captain to be vastly more experienced.

I'm not bitter or anything...:D

That is a very subjective question that will get a different answer depending on who you ask. I have over 12,000 hours with more than 7,000 jet PIC and over a 1,000 heavy jet PIC accrued over 27 years and the fact that I'm still learning new things when I go flying indicates to me that I'm still far from experienced

Experience is...

-Having done it enough so that the routine process is second nature, freeing up mental capacity for abnormals.

-Having done it enough so that you have seen enough abnormals to get comfortable with handling them.

-Having done it enough, and seen enough abnormals to lose your sense of complacency.

In aviation this would a function of total time and the nature (quality) of that time.