Why do they pop 200 hrs pilots into the RHS in JAR land - because they dont have any GA industry to speak of to generate pilots with real world experience. And why does it work? Because flying in JAR land is so highly regulated, controlled and automated that it becomes a fly by numbers routine - and the type ratings in general are a lot more thorough.
Having flown with a number of low time co-pilots in a contract environment, I can state with confidence that there is simply no substitute for experience. A co-pilot with no real world experience substantially increases the pressure on the captain, deviates his or her attention from managing the flight to monitoring and instructing the co-pilot, and in my opinion significantly reduces overall safety. The whole point of the second person in the cockpit is to increase safety and reduce the workload on the captain, not the opposite.
The fact that there are some DEs handing out seriously suspect type ratings does not help the whole situation.
Oh yeah - and please don't get me started on the low life scum who charge low time pilots to fly RHS on passenger carrying, revenue earning flights. As far as I am concerned this is criminal and should be prevented by regulation.
Last edited by Woof etc; 5th Nov 2006 at 21:56.