Elegant post SR71
But I draw you to your own conclusion....
The bottom line is that safety isn't about time in the seat when everything is going right, but how you react when everything is going wrong.
Experience alone, or whether one is FT or PTWK also doesn't dictate how one reacts in the seat when everything is going wrong either. I would rather have a ****-hot junior PTWK pilot with low hours, than a more Senior, high-hour pilot who has been known to have trouble at various times throughout their Career. Anyone in training will tell you, they know who the marginal pilots are, and they can be found in both seats, with various experience levels, and irrespective of being FT or PTWK.
The reason we don't have a monkey in the flightdeck with us, is because although a monkey could be trained to execute our various SOP's, the most important and significant part of claiming a safe operation is what happens when something non-normal occurs. An in-experienced monkey at this point, isn't much use.
A monkey is a monkey, experienced or otherwise, PTWK monkey or a FTWK monkey. The reason we don't have a monkey in the flight deck with us is because a monkey doesn't have the intellectual ability of critical thinking required to do the job, no matter how much experience you give them. There are some pilots who are more like monkeys, fulltime or not, and there are others who could never be called a monkey, even if they flew only once a year.
In every profession there are those who just barely make the grade, and seem to trundle through their entire Career just getting by. Experience can help them disguise this fact, but the underlying fact remains. There are others who seem to have no difficulty in overcoming whatever comes their way. Anyone who has spent time in aviation knows that there are good/bad pilots in any airline, and it is not just a case of reversing the Seniority list to list the bad ones.
All this debate boils down to is one's personal opinions on Safety. Things like PTWK, fatigue, experience on type, etc are all factors sure, but I think one needs to review each individual on their own merit before passing a blanket judgement on what someone can/can't cope with. Saying all PTWK's are more likely to be unsafe ignores the mutlitude of other factors that constitute a good pilot. In my opinion, if you want to improve Safety, all marginal pilots should be given more training/access to Sims, wherever, and in whichever seat they occupy, and regardless of how much time-in/experience they have.