Originally Posted by
iggy
Previous poster said Command after 5 years is an example of being unprepared. I am saying it can be much worse than that.
Any pilot jumping on the left seat of a medium jet with that experience is ignorant about the risk. Since neither the airlines nor the pilots are being able to behave themselves in this regard I see urgent to put measures in place to stop this madness, being those measures total time, number of recurrent checks, years as commercial pilot.
5 years from flight school to A320 Captain and 600hr TT FO:
Ural Airlines Flight 178
They did fine. No "madness" there. No pilot at a reputable carrier is going to be checked out as a Captain unless a highly experienced training department concurs. Under the US System you can become a Captain of a Regional jet after as little as 1000hrs prior to an airline (instructing in light aircraft) and then 1000hrs as an FO, just over a year's worth of operational airline flying. And in a market that's so desperate for pilots that a lot of those who shouldn't be in a flight deck will be (Atlas Air for example). That's the real madness. A Euro-style pilot who was selected and trained for airline flying from day one and has spent a good 4-5 years in the right hand seat doing multiple sectors a day and getting exposed to Weather, Traffic, Culture, Passenger, Mechanical issues on a daily basis would be a much better option.