FO flight time on ET302

[cessnapete]

BA and before BEA have taken 250 hour F/O (not MPL) straight out of flying college onto two crew aircraft. Trident B737 A320 B757, for many many years with no safety problems. Many retired now as Wide Body/ Concorde Capts after long safe carreers. It’s training, not 1500 hours as an Instructor on a Cessna 150 that matter.
Proper stringent initial selection, subsequent training, and route mentoring, not total hours, are the important ingredients.
Although 200 hours quoted in this accident seem very low. The Cadets mentioned above after CPL/IR and 50 sector Route Training would be nearer 300+hours before released to normal Line ops. and rostered only with experienced Capts. for the first few months.

[Ilyushin76]

Originally Posted by Capn Bloggs

I would expect that someone with more experience would react better than someone with less...

I do agree with you but you'd be surprised how sometimes thats not the case

[Ilyushin76]

Originally Posted by Fluke

If he had 200 hours most airlines would require a safety pilot or at least a training captain to be operating.
200 hours does not make a poor FO but it can make the upgrade in a few years difficult..

Agreed 100%

[Traffic_Is_Er_Was]

Originally Posted by Chesty Morgan

What's wrong with having 200 hours?

Nothing. It sounds better than this (from the African media):

His first officer, Ahmednur Mohamednur, had several flight hours under his belt.

[B2N2]

Originally Posted by Fluke

If he had 200 hours most airlines would require a safety pilot or at least a training captain to be operating.
200 hours does not make a poor FO but it can make the upgrade in a few years difficult..

Two years - 1500 hrs on type
Three years - 2250 hrs on type
Four years - 3000 hrs on type

So what’s difficult exactly?

[Checkboard]

I flew GA in Oz, joined Ansett and ended up now flying in Europe. I fly with 200 hour FOs all the time - and they are great at what they do.

Its all about statistics. The chances of the captain being incapacitated and the 200 hour second in command copilot having to take over control and fly the aircraft solo, is so remote as to be not even considered.

Not so - they are fully qualified FOs and perfectly capable of handling an incap. Indeed we had one a couple of years ago and the FO diverted and landed without problems.

How many hours does a wings graduate in the RAAF have?

[MCDU2]

I had 200hrs once. What I really want to know is how I can be considered "commendable".

[First_Principal]

I'm not sure I'd necessarily take as correct, nor 'official', something that appears on a social media posting.

It's also fairly soon after the event, and the supposed data may not have been cross-checked to ensure accuracy.

Additionally there is - to my mind - a question that arises in regard to Ethiopian's SOP's with reference to crew experience...

For anyone interested I posted in more detail here

FP.

[sigler]

Originally Posted by Ilyushin76

I do agree with you but you'd be surprised how sometimes thats not the case

yeah, but a good 2,000-hour pilot will always react better than a good 200-hour pilot, just like a 2,000-hour pilot will react better than a 200-hour bad pilot. Experience does not make a bad pilot good, but it does make any pilot better than their own low-hour version.

[junior.VH-LFA]

Originally Posted by Checkboard

I flew GA in Oz, joined Ansett and ended up now flying in Europe. I fly with 200 hour FOs all the time - and they are great at what they do.


Not so - they are fully qualified FOs and perfectly capable of handling an incap. Indeed we had one a couple of years ago and the FO diverted and landed without problems.

How many hours does a wings graduate in the RAAF have?

160. Then conversion on to type.