I have 800hrs TT and fly single pilot IFR in a light twin. I am 44 years old and have (non aviation) "command and judgement" experience coming out of my ears. This works in the air while the only ass(es) on the line are mine, and a few well informed passengers. I have flown IFR in some testing conditions, time and again I have had to learn new lessons the hard way, with no voice of experience in the other seat.
Do I think that if I changed my career and racked up 1000 hours on a 737 (less than a year I understand), that I would be ready to take a 100+ members of someone elses family on an aircraft that I was Captaining, without a significant amount of doubt in my mind. No I do not, it is not my place to learn at the expense of risking other innocent lives. In this stage I would be chronologically old, but "technically young".
Of course age is not every thing, really its the passage of time which is important. If at this stage of my life I flew as FO to a 5000hour 35 year old Captain, I would consider him/her to be "technically older" than myself as far as operating the aircraft is concerned, balanced with a good level of maturity and life skills. I would not be able to consider a 5000hr 25 year old captain in the same way, and would need to take a closer look at his/her maturity levels, before reaching a rounded conclusion as to "technical age".
In my professional life, which has had its own hairy moments, I have learned that age and maturity teach you to question your own judgement in a more timely and appropriate fashion. Some people get old and still never learn, but those who are still young have not had the chance to learn that they are not invincible, and therefore are a risk in an industry which, in a perfect world, wants to have a perfect no accident record.
Yes the military have younger pilots, but they also (excluding transportation) have a higher casualty rate due to the mission profiles.
Some one mentioned Guy Gibson and the dams raid. To be honest you would have to lack either judgement, doubt or both (but certainly not courage), to think that you could pull it off, and indeed more than half of 617 sqn failed to return from the raid, and they were not all shot down!
Gibson was taken off flying duties after two tours and was so restless he was always in trouble (mainly shagging other peoples wifes if Max Hastings is to be believed) that they put him in the air again in a Mosquito as a master bomber, where he eventually died, not during a raid, but because as his tolerance to danger grew, the raids were not enough and on the trip back he would drop down to low level to strafe enemy installations, and eventually got caught out.
There is a very good reason that the military needs young leaders, and it is almost diametrically opposite to the needs of a 100% safe air transport operation, experience and maturity has a very large part to play in the process IMHO
Last edited by rmac; 21st Aug 2007 at 11:49.