Originally Posted by
calypso
While I agree that experience is not the only metric
Every "good" pilot gets better with experience
Every "Bad" pilot gets a little less bad with experience
On top of that It is always better to scare yourself ****less on your own in a little Cessna and swear to never do that again than to do the same as a captain in a 737.
There are capts in Europe that have never diverted, never done a GA, never have had to use the QRH in flight. They are flying with guys that are trailing twelve miles behind the tail. The only reason nothing happens is because these are extremely reliable machines
very true.
someone keeps mentioning “1500 hours in the pattern” and I don’t really know anyone who actually just does 1500 hours in the pattern. That being said, I agree that if someone spends 1500 hours teaching flying, that’s not especially valuable experience. I do find that teaching things like L/D, laminar flow, shifting CP, etc makes one think about those concepts and brings one to a better understanding. Ask most pilots to explain Mach tuck and how the shock wave changes the CP and I’ll bet you get a weak explanation.
to the OP asking about the market, do I understand correctly that Different pilots at the same carrier operate on different contracts? It seems like the airlines can easily use this to divide the pilot group.
the US has benefited from a strong economy for the airlines, a shortage of qualified pilots, and pilot groups that are cohesive. It’s like a marriage. Once someone gets hired at an airline, they tend to think that’s their life and they work to make it better. I may be wrong, (I’m only saying this from reading on here), but it seems like a lot of people with an airline job in Europe keep shopping for a different job. It’s definitely a different market.
As a casual outside observer, it seems the BA strike didn’t achieve much. I wish it had. We are all better served by a strong market for pilots everywhere.