I have always had reservations about the MPL and low time cadets in the right seat...that's just me, maybe I'm old fashioned and believe 200hr cadets have no business piloting an airliner, but I'm a firm believer that airliner duty comes only after one pays their dues with experience and getting the crap scared out of them more than a few times while building time on their own... Transporting passengers in airliners is the pinnacle of the profession and should only come after a thorough seasoning. IMHO
Yes & no. I agree that a 2nd officer is an apprentice. I still consider the 1st year salaries for raw cadets are too high. It leads to some unhealthy attitudes and also unhealthy motivations for being there in the 1st place. Ignoring the cost of reaching the RHS, because it is not a level playing file for everyone, I argue that the rewards in 1st year are not yet merited by the experience available. The big bucks will arrive sooner than most other professions. Patience and some humility, hm.
However, to the point above. It can be argued that the safety level of a modern MPA jet, both technically, SOP=wise and the environment of their operations, does allow cadets of suitable quality to be there. If you force them to go via the regional T.P's to hour build then I argue this can be is less safe for the pax. The environment at lower level is much more hazardous; the SOP's might be less in-depth and evolved; the captains can be less experienced and thus less able to teach the new apprentice; perhaps even less capable and rejected by the majors; the a/c have less performance to help you out of the poo; the company less financially secure with all the associated consequences; etc. etc. There are places, both with the equipment and environment, where I consider the experience level up front to be woefully too low and the risk factor way too high. This is a factor of the lower salaries. i.e. low experience = low salaries caused by less pax on small a/c. I once asked an operator of F27 flying London area to Europe why their fares were so much higher than the major from LHR. Reply was 50 pax versus 180. You paid for the journey; simple. The salaries of the pilots was 1/2 of the big jet jockeys. After a few years their experience was very relevant to their environment, but the 1st couple of years had a high learning curve with hopefully no hurtful problems and they all survived. There are places in our world where they are not so lucky on the regionals. I'm amazed at the blind faith of pax who climb aboard these things; even including to the cadet hour builders in the Safari parks of Africa. A 206 full of CEO's piloted by some one they wouldn't hire as their chauffeur. Hm?