Luke calm down, mate, no need to blow a gasket! But I know where you're coming from...
ziva You've obviously not been here very long. eagerbeaver's reference to 'a certain frenchman' is about an individual called Ronchonner that darkened these forums a while back with some very aggravating and provocative wind-up posts in very poor English. skyman68's posts read spookily like Ronch's....
The market in UK seems to me to be quite unlike that anywhere else, in that we have a recognised route for a few fATPLs to get into a jet cockpit with very few hours. This does a number of things: it leads all fATPLs to unrealistically believe that they can do the same; it pisses off those who feel they've put in the hours and been bypassed; but for the airlines that employ this approach, it gives a spread of experience they wouldn't otherwise have achieved without being in business for 35 years. It is important for the easyJets of this world that they don't end up with a workforce all between 35-45, who will therefore all retire in a compressed period - with all the problems that that implies for replacements etc. That is why a few 200-hour fATPLs get these jobs. Even though the market is improving, most of you will still have to follow Luke and Artificial Horizon on the slightly longer route to a 737 flight deck!
Scroggs