Originally Posted by
sheppey
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.
not sure if this proves anything, I have been with Captains who I thought were out of their depth in particular situations and my last event where I had to take control from someone was an FO with over 6,000 hours including GA and Turboprop background when he completely mishandled a visual approach despite some guidance and intervention from me early on in the piece. The last trainee Captain I was with was excellent and the best trainee in the left seat I have ever had, he was an ex-cadet who joined 5 years ago with 200 hours. My conclusion after this is not a lot really, just that you can’t say more hours equals better, sure you can use total hours as a tool to sort potential candidates but appitude testing, personality and motivation are probably better indicators for who you should hire. There will be GA pilots who hands down are better that some cadets just as there are some cadets who even with 200 hours are hands down better operators than some ‘experienced’ ex-GA pilots.