Originally Posted by
MungoP
Personally I've never considered the fact that the FO having low hrs was a major safety concern.. everyone has to learn their skills and gather experience. My concern was the quality of their training with LoCo regional operators and the fact that the pilot in the left seat may have minimal command experience. By the time that many 'captains' have acquired sufficient experience they make a career move away from the regionals.
Having said that, when we consider the environment that regional turboprop crews operate within, small under equipped airports, hostile terrain, lower altitude weather patterns added to the number of sectors flown on a typical day and to the basic accommodation to be expected away from base I'd say that the safety record is on the whole pretty creditable. Yes we can point to Buffalo and a couple of other tragic events but we're not short of major accidents involving highly experienced, highly paid crews of major airlines where the crews performance can only be described as downright appalling.
I would prefer that the focus was less on minimal FO experience and greater monitoring of performance and qualifications for sitting in the left seat.
I've flown with both schools of thought. I MUCH prefer experienced pilots to 250 type rated guys and girls that can tell you what the magnet in the whiskey compass is made of but can't hand fly or process anything outside the norms. Fortunately, flight instructing is consistently outside of the box.