but aside from being military, how many of you found your way into a multi engine jet with that little experience

daytona, do you have an update from your captain friend? Is the rumor true? I sort of have been hearing the same thing.

Whats the difference between 600 hrs. and 1000hrs.? Nothing, theres no reason why a first officer shouldnt be allowed to learn the ropes just like in every profession. Seriously, if your good enough to make it through all your ratings, maybe instructing, then you have what it takes, I am sick of some of these guys thinking they are KING OF PILOTS. NCD here and I made it to the regionals with low, low time(No College Degree) hence NCD and at age 35 while working full time and raising a baby through my flight training. My point is if your good, you belong and if not then go drive a truck. Flying is not rocket science. Actually its quite easy.

I think most of us agree that flying is easy. Getting in the 'ol 172 is like getting in my car. The part that is not easy to get is the experience...it takes time. And what does experience give you?...safety. You know what to do, when crap hits the fan.

The whole debate about 250-500 hr wonder kids in the cockpit is not a question about whether they can pass training, or even perform their routine job satisfactorily. I'm sure they can. The question is what will happen if an emergency arises, and the captain is extremely overwhelmed.

The good news is that after a bit flying (6months, a year, a year and a half?) on a CRJ, ERJ, or whatever theyre in, hopefully they know the plane well enough to be prepared for that situation.

"Whats the difference between 600 hrs. and 1000hrs.? Nothing.."

400 hours, when you only have 600 hours, is almost twice as much experience as a pilot. I hardly call that nothing.

"I am sick of some of these guys thinking they are KING OF PILOTS"

I guess I resemble that remark, though I don't think of myself as "KING OF PILOTS", as you state. I'm just someone who worked his way up through this career and, as such, know what a liability low time F/O's are. I'd rather see us raising the bar with the profession rather than lowering it. It's that simple.

"Flying is not rocket science. Actually its quite easy"

Well...glad you think so. If it was so easy, I don't think they would pay me 200K a year to make critical decisions effecting the safety and efficient operation of the airline. And the F/O can be a huge player in that.

Having the attitude that "this job is easy" isn't going to lead to a better contract at the bottom feeder of regionals. I hope most guys at Mesa don't have this kind of attitude.

"The whole debate about 250-500 hr wonder kids in the cockpit is not a question about whether they can pass training, or even perform their routine job satisfactorily. I'm sure they can. The question is what will happen if an emergency arises, and the captain is extremely overwhelmed"

I would partly disagree. Emergencies are all you do in the sim so I would expect someone fresh out of training to do okay. It's the real life stuff, like working the radios into LAX without screwing up, that's I'd worry about. You can't train "experience". You can only get it by spending time in the air and learning from your mistakes. That's why the 400 hours, at the beginning of this post, are important.

De727

"Well...glad you think so. If it was so easy, I don't think they would pay me 200K a year to make critical decisions effecting the safety and efficient operation of the airline. And the F/O can be a huge player in that."

That is because you work for Brown. Take same pilots for example at Omni flying 757 they make a fraction of what you make and they still have same decisions to make...
Its all based who you work for and how successful your company is. Not long ago Brown guys were not making even close to 200k

Great post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

when the airlines need pilots they reduce the mins. What about the days when Delta etc was hiring with a PPL or with 300 hr TT. Once the pool of these goes dry, pay will go up!

Surely that can't be right. There's no way they could put someone like that in a jet......is there??

No...I didn't know the captain who told me that. I was just sitting in the crew lounge in Carolina (if I remember correctly) and started talking to the Comair crew one day. My captain was with me and expressed some interest in working at Comair so that he could live in south Florida. They seemed shocked that a Lear/Falcon 20 captain with +5000 TT was considering working for Comair. That's when he told us about the soon-to-be hiring boom and rapid upgrade times there.
It was of course just word of mouth from the Comair captain, but the FO confirmed the rumor.