Although , no i am not yet a pilot ( still a trainee ... not under MCPL, nor would i ever be, i have some pride after all ) , i feel i must express alarm about this as well, for a number of reasons. the most previlant of them has to be safety, not only of the aircraft crewed by FO's of such .. abbrevated exprence, but of other aircraft in the vacinity, ...... i am not sure i would want to be under the flight path of one of them either .
Reading anicdotes from a couple of people earlier in the thread about "similerly trained" crew not being able to answer questions that boil down to "where are you" is alarming. instriments and computers are not right all the time, ( the first thing that comes into my mind is the mt erebus .. * ahem* incident.) and being able to get down intact is the biggest thing when something goes wrong.
are sims useful, .. hell yes, i doubt anyone is saying otherwise. best place for emergancy procedures training. but they are not enough on their own.
if my training provider tried to tell me that live flight time was not needed, or downgraded it from how much they give ( yes .. about 200 hrs ... and at the end of that, yes a " frozen ATPL ", which my understanding is more just permission to come back and do the check flight when you get your experence up to the task .... at the end of which i will not be ready to sit right seat in a heavy. period.) i would be looking for a new training provider.
then again, i seem to have the intention to be a "self improver" as it has been put a few times. i have heard that pilots with glider experence are usualy good for when the manure meets the air displacement device ... and this is not just from a single source, so i have to concider this nessercery self improvement. not just for flying heavys.
and yes i might be rambling, but for those who are going to tell me thats irrelivent, what happens in your multi engine heavy's when all the engines flame out, 'cause some muppet didn't load the fuil correctly. its happened. or so i am told.
200 hrs gonna prep me for that? i don't think so