"First flight in the left-hand seat?"
Not by a long way, after all the sim sessions and line training and checking you'd have around 60 hours of LHS sim time and around 30 sectors in the LHS.
"Is it possible that, on the next commercial airline flight I take, the captain could be commanding the jet for the very first time?"
Yes and you probably wouldn't know it.
Sooner or later it's going to happen that a brand new Captain has to fly his first unsupervised sector, he can't be under supervision for ever.
As doo says there is an assessment process to sort out suitable candidates, ground school and endorsement if changing types then a fairly heavy duty training programme in the simulator followed by numerous sectors of line training followed, in my company, by two separate multi-sector trips being checked.
The first check is carried out with the checker acting as F/O and is thorough and involves in depth discussion on all manner of topics relating to the operation, the second check is conducted with a line F/O in the RHS with the checker being an observer and making virtually no input or comment until the very end.
You are well and truly ready for your 'first solo' by the end of it all.
Regards,
BH.
Last edited by Bullethead; 20th Aug 2007 at 06:55.