You say you cant understand how a 21 y/o considers themself ready for a command....if a 21 y/o has the nessesary hours, passes the command assessment, has a good route and aircraft knowledge and generally has a bit of common sense...why is that different from a 40 year old with the same hours? Of course the 40 y/o has naturally 'tucked more away'...but that doesn't mean the 21 y/o wouldn't be a good operator.
Okay, I can answer that question. My father, at the age of 20, was a B-17 aircraft commander in 1942. He was obviously Air Force trained. However, he was not the only young aircraft commander in the military back in those days, he was one who survied. The ratio of combat losses to operational/training losses was 1 to 10. In other words for every aircraft lost in combat, 10 were lost in non-combat. Another little know fact was that the older the pilot was when they entered training the better odds were that they would survive.
One saying my father had, that is just as true today as it was then, is that you 'cannot train experience'. If one looks at the air war in Korea it was not the young buck 20'ish year olds that had the majority of the air to air kills, no it was the older guys.
I am not saying that there are no 21 year old pilots that are "ready for command". I'm sure there are, but not in a Boeing 747-400 or any heavy jet, or mid-size jet. They need to get experience starting from the bottom of the food chain, so to speak.
Now having said that, do not compare military flying with young pilots to non-military young pilots. A whole different world that is.
In any case randomair, good luck in your career.
