Mature farts
LG..you're absolutely spot on and I guess the 10 year to command thingy would be a tough one in today's climate. Having said that, pre 1985, 10 years to command was almost the norm. Last Officer Gosper being one example. Some of us were pretty lucky and managed to get the LHS, with early L1011 options, inside 4 years and strangely, 4 to 5 years for command appeared to set the benchmark to command for a while, ('85 to '86 joiners); that was to be unrealistic, as is the 10 year bench of today. Its a fickle business and what applies today, rapidly can become history tomorrow.