Guess you'll be passing up a lot of flights...

For those who think regionals shouldn't hire at 500 total, what should the airlines do right now? Who should they hire to fill the right seat? And what should the magic arbitrary number be where someone has proven that they are capable to fly right seat in a jet?

You must either be a total company man, or naive..

here is an idea: PAY MORE!

If you wana play.. you HAVE TO PAY!

Anyone heard of the word EXPERIENCE?
Yeah the company can train most smart individuals to sit right seat with low time. They can land the plane, etc., but this turns the aircraft into single pilot operation. Even worse the captain has to watch the FO and ensure he/she does nothing wrong. Creating more of a Burdon in some cases than flying the plane by themselves. Can you say fatigue?

I agree well said

Ha, that's funny. Back in the day (a Wednesday btw) people had to fly elsewhere before getting an airline job. 1200/200 would have been considered low time just a couple years ago. I think that the FAA should require the same minimums for 121 operation as they do for 135 guys.

Don't you?

What makes them any different?

The airlines train to a specific standard. Training takes onto account a minimum knowledge of aircraft systems and aircraft maneuvers. Hence a 500 hr pilot may appear to be as qualified as a 20,000 hr pilot in the sim. Throw them out on the line in weather, or send em to Mexico etc, and you will see the difference. Its called experience.

Another issue is these cookie-cutter, herd them through like cattle type of flight schools (pan-am and atp) which don't produce very highly skilled pilots. There is no way someone flying around vfr in an archer under strickly controlled supervision can learn to fully think for themselves. We've had two such instructors work at the school where I have taught for the past couple of years and both have damaged airplane (one was totaled), no one has been hurt (thankfully) but we no longer will employ an instructor if he attended such a school. In my experience they are dangerous and don't have the experience to exercise sound judgement and were never shown it either. The problem will be when that guy then becomes a captain of an airliner with a 300 hour atp graduate in the right seat, who is going to be supervising then? That's probably about the time they take off on the wrong runway....

Still didn't answer my question. What should the regionals do then right now, seeing as some can't even fill classes w/500 hour pilots or less. I'm not saying experience isn't important, b/c it is. However, if 500 to 1000 hours is as qualified as there is right now, what other choice is there.

If the airlines keep lowering the minimums, where is the motivation for new pilots to become instructors and freight pilots to get the kind of experience that should be required to be in the care of peoples' lives. If the minimums were 1500 or 2000 I bet there would the cfi's and freight dogs would be a lot more motivated to hurry up and get what is necessary to be an airline pilot instead of trying to find ways around these experience building positions (again atp), why would they learn more if they could go at 500 hours?