You've all missed the point that the original question was asked by a US-based wannabe. In the US, a Second Officer normally operates the flight engineer's panel and does not operate as pilot in any shape or form. It used to be a common way of gaining jet experience but, with the loss of 3-crew aircraft, it's now fairly rare. It did/does not remove the requirement to get hands-on hours which, more often than not, will come from FI-ing or air taxiing or the like.
In UK, there are next to no SO positions. Virgin did take some a few years ago - and they all had over 1000 hours on appointment. Guess what - all those hours were FI, air taxi, night freight, bush flying or similar. It was up to us to remove any 'bad habits', if they existed, but it's difficult to transfer bad habits from, say, a Seneca to an Airbus A340!! We stopped the scheme because it saved no money over recruiting a First Officer, with 3000+ mainly jet hours, by the time the extra training was accounted for.
In any case, the only valid comparison is between a pilot with SO experience and a pilot with GA experience competing for the same job. As I said earlier, if the job is a jet airliner, the ex-SO may well have the advantage. However, the point is moot as there are almost no SOs around.
Scroggs Virgin/Wannabes Moderator
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