Hi raven11,
Thanks for the reply. Your position is now much clearer and to some extent I agree with you.
You say:
No, I don't think that P2X hours qualify as high quality right-seat time
So would it be fair to say that you agree that when an SO undertakes his JFO upgrade he is 'inexperienced'? If that's an incorrect assumption on my part then please correct me. As I said earlier, if P2X hours don't count towards experience, then we're no different from many other airlines, KA included, in the way we train 'inexperienced' pilots.
You say:
The combination of a highly experienced captain and a 200 hour first officer in the cockpit of a commercial jet is not something I agree with (as the accident statistics bear out).
Given the inference in your earlier statement about P2X hours how do you reconcile the way we go about training our junior pilots, particularly ex-ab initio cadets? Also, which accident statistics are you referring to when you make this statement?
The best way for a new pilot to acquire experience is the same way as it is in every other profession (and for airlines operating under FAA jurisdiction)....you work your way up.
Agreed, although I'm not sure I understand why you make the distinction regarding the FAA. All they stipulate is the hours requirement, nothing to do with quality of previous experience (apart from, arguably, the military and tertiary education concession).
It costs money to hire and train the best pilots. How much money an airline spends on hiring and training is directly proportional to the quality of the end product in the cockpit. Generally speaking, if you pay peanuts......
Agreed to some extent but that's a different argument, industrial versus professional, although I do concede that they are interlinked to a degree. Sadly, the world has changed and the traditional sources of 'experienced' pilots have all but dried up; not only that, so has traditional training for prospective airline pilots and much of the world is drifting, rightly or wrongly, towards the the MPL style concept. Further, airline managements around the world will pay only as much as they need to to encourage pilots to join, or remain at, their companies. The American majors are offering the current packages because they have to, not because they’ve suddenly become generous. The same is true of ME3 and mainland carriers offering attractive packages. The same was true of CX in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It’s business and, whether we like to admit it or not, respect for us collectively as a profession or individually as people has nothing to do with it.
We're at a crossroads as an industry and the way I see it is we have 3 options: first, accept that the landscape has changed and influence what we can, i.e. share our experience with the junior pilots and ensure that our training and checking systems remain robust; second, get angry about it and decide that anyone who joins an airline with less than 10000 hours in a 747 or 5000 hours in an F18 is going to be useless before we even fly with them; third, give up and decide the changing landscape is beyond our sphere of influence and not make any effort to nurture our younger colleagues and simply refer to them collectively as being 'spikey haired'. Personally, I think the first is the best option because I don't see the option of a U turn taking us back to where we came from.
STP