I'm sitting out here in Africa where there is a total plague of 250 hour CPL and above pilots fresh out of flight school. With the right contacts etc they move straight from a Baron/152 to co-pilot or cadet in the local regional airline. All of these guys are nice and have the basic right intentions but they're in a system which is more concerned with churning out certificates than any practical handling capability or knowledge. We're a disaster waiting to happen.
If the FAA wants to avoid taking the same path as we are, all kudos to them. If I'm sitting at the back of a "Heavy" anything into marginal conditions, I REALLY want to know that BOTH crew have more experience than I do, are both capable of making key decisions, and actually know what they're doing. If that means a basic standard of 1500 hours, that's the least I am comfortable with.
Cadets are at best a short cut method to getting the rating, or getting the requisite number of crew. Give it whatever name you like, insist on as much training gimmicks or checklists or whatever, at crunch time there is nothing like real experience. It might not be PC to bring this up, but would Air France have had a different result over the Atlantic with crew with more real experience.
Another point to consider - what other profession in the world takes a newly qualified individual with little experience and puts them in charge of training the next generation of individuals. Never understood that. For example I ended up being trained as a CPL by someone who had less hours than I did as a PPL!! Imagine a doctor with not even the experience of a first stitching case being put in charge of training someone who plans to conduct brain surgery..... Somethings seriously back to front.
