Low n'Slow,
We can never know how one will react to an engine failure, smoke in cabin, engine fire and so on.
Yes,thats why we need two experienced pilots.
What Bob and myself were saying,if any of you had bothered to read our posts carefully,was that the First Officer is a crucial member of the team.He is the right arm of the skipper or should be.But he's gotta earn this right.You earn respect,its never automatic.
to add one of greater experience to the RHS (which, some might argue would create a clash) B) accept that flying a jetliner is a two man job, everybody has to start somewhere, and at least CONSIDER that an FO (who is actually qualified on type regardless of experience.) may now and again have a point, if he is wrong, then so what...he is learning and you have at least given him something from the exercise.
Yes,everyone must start somewhere,but this is what we're debating surely?You dont start in the right seat of a 757 with 300 hours under your belt.
The only people who benefit from that are the beancounters who get cheap malleable labor who wont complain about T&C and who will pay for their training.The Captain wont benefit and neither will the passengers.Two experienced pilots together rarely clash.In fact,the opposite is true.The calm on the flight deck is directly proportional to the amount of trust the left seat has in the right seat.Perfect CRM exists almost on a telepathic wavelength.You know what the other guy is thinking/feeling,nothing has to be really spelt out.And how do you know?Experience.
Finally,the post from Capt Pit Bull is the most distressing of all.The young guys know no better,they cant be blamed.But,here presumably is an experienced pilot who not only thinks training can replace experience and that accidents dont happen that much anymore(reallly?)but that its all our fault for not recognizing the skills of a 300 hour pilot and managing his skills???Just what skills are you referring to?A 300 hour pilot has no skills.None.A 300 hour pilot who recognizes that fact has one thing going for him;honesty.
If you select the right people,they get real sharp real quick?Sharp at what?Sharp at flow scans and reading checklists and flying an ILS?Yes,I agree.Important skills but they're just the bare backbone.The real skills that we need on the flight deck of a large passenger jet come only through experience.You probably counter that the Captain has these in abundance and so it doesnt matter.Well okay,but that brings us back to the steep gradient and the plethora of accidents that have happened as a result of just such a flightdeck.Kegworth.gerona.tenerife.Bahrain.Staines.On and on and on.You probably next counter that two experienced pilots can also screw up.Thats right.Nothing is watertight.We must however,play the percentages.What crew combination gives us the best chance of combatting a bad situation when a whole load of passengers lives are at stake???Let the new guys learn their skills flying cargo on a 9 seater with an autopilot that doesnt work.Let them shoot a dme-arc non precision with no FMS in IMC and no fancy avionics.Let them experience mod to severe icing at 14000' with only boots and the speed slowly coming back and see what they make of it.They'll soon learn self-reliance and adrenalin-control and when their time comes to move on and up,they'll thank the Good Lord that they didnt have to learn from their mistakes with two or three hundred passengers sitting behind them.And yes those experiences are relevant to commercial jet flying.Every one of them.Airmanship is not type-specific.Never has been,never will be.