First, I am in no way intentionally belittling the wonderful achievement of this Captain (they are a Captain, not a male Captain or a female Captain; just a Captain) and any innuendos that may arise are also unintentional due to my present medical condition and medication consumption. Also the young fella has done very well also at that age so kudos to him as well.
However, with all the automation that there is now (and I suppose for quite some time now) how can you rate experience. Does this Captain engage the autopilot 30 seconds after take-off and places their hands on the controls a minute of two before landing. How much actual stick time (manual/physical flying experience) would they have had in those 5 years in the right seat?
I do not question their systems monitoring experience in those 5 years but that doesn't count towards actual hands on experience. I remember my Instructor who sent me solo 40 and a bit years ago telling me about his ride in a DC-8 jump-seat and how surprised he was when the pilot (Captain or F/O, can't remember) hand flew the aircraft on approach from 10,000 feet. Maybe I am just a demented old fool now (ok, so no maybe about it
) but to me that is experience. I don't blame the pilots for not having that experience and there have been enough posts that have gone into why this has come about.
There was the case a few years ago in Oz of a pilot in the J* program who could hand fly an accurate and stable approach from 10,000 feet but did not pass line training because he was a little slow on getting into the flow with using the automatics. I know that there must be a balance somewhere between the two but not being a magenta line child I tend to lean towards the Captain or F/O who can actually hand fly the aircraft when the automatics have a hissy fit. Probably AF447, and others, would/may not have had the same outcome if there had been more actual flying experience on those two very important front seats.
That over used and tired, IMO, company catch phrase "Safety is our main priority" would ring more true if pilots became a bit more like pilots and a little less like systems monitors. Yes the automatics are important but so are our hard earned stick and rudder skills.