which many of you are still wedded to, in your insistence that 2000 hours (or number of your choice) equals competent, 200 hours equals incompetent.
Not so at all. On the other hand, surely common sense would dictate that a pilot's experience level should not be judged so irrelevant as to be disregarded as a factor in recruitment to the RH seat. I have been in the situation during a night circling approach in dodgy weather where I quietly thought I had better not stuff this up because sure as hell, my 250 hour newly type rated colleague in the other seat, had already demonstrated he was out of his depth. It was not necessarily his fault. It was the system that put him there.