I personnally think the whole multi engine 'black art' thing is a load of tosh. Say someone has 1000 multi engine hours flying say the same mundane task day in day out (I don't know , say out to a rig in VMC by day)- how is he/she any more qualified than say a chap who has lots of single only time in a more demanding environment such as EMS ops at night (lots of people do it) , NVG in ordinary conditions, IFR (yes some people do that to) etc etc.
I think it has got a lot to do with the individual (training, attitude, skill sets etc) as opposed to how many multi hours he might have. Case in point are RAN Seahawk pilots (and dare I say it RN lynx pilots). These guys go from a Squirrel to single pilot IFR (yes they have an observer in the LHS) 22000lb multi engined aircraft and I am not aware of one aircraft loss in the many years they have been operated..stand to be corrected. While I think of it what about some 22 year old who is flying around in his F18, F15 or whatever....I don't think there is an advert out there saying fast jet pilot required...require 500 hours multi time!
Yes some multi engine helicopters are more complex but thats where good training and a suitable individual with the the right attributes comes in. Off the soap box now.
Turkey