I knew this would illicit some critical response. In Canada, commercial operators hire low time pilots very frequently....the next couple of years requires mentoring, teaching, and nurturing by other experienced company pilots and personell.....more and more responsibility is delegated to the newbie as he/she developes. During a lot of that time they have worked in the hangar also learning maintenance practices, and worked as ground crew support....works very well for us here.
Agreed, a high time pilot is no guarantee of a good instructor, Sir Korsky said it best that enthusiasm and a love for the industry makes for good instructors....I couldn't agree more...I take a break often and go back and help at a friends flight school here in BC and love to work with the ab initio and lessor experienced pilots.
I think we did the math a while back on the instructors at Chinook Helicopters, and the experience level sat at around 134 years and over 115,00 flight hours combined.....we see students arrive from every corner of the world to train here, one could ask any of them, and one would pretty much always hear they had a good instruction and value.
Canadian operators place a lot of credibility in a good product being turned out of the schools....they have been taught more than the basics. We are geographically blessed with unpredictable weather and mountains that are right out our back door....want to compare our 100 hour low timer to say a Florida sunny day candidate taught by a 160 instructor.....
