Believe me, after years of reading 411a's posts I can assure you he has a skin thicker than a rhinoceros...

He is speaking it how it is. Don't like it... walk!

PS. Don't take things so personally... :)

Gentlemen, you can bicker about personalities until the cows come home, but getting back to the original question, the bottom line is that command time is what counts in this industry. And, the heavier and faster the metal the better.

When I was a just a young G.A. pilot flying light aircraft on charter and airwork ops the yardstick was to have a command on an aircraft over 12,500 lbs (i.e. DC-3). By the time I joined my first airline as a new F/O the yardstick had moved to command on a Turbo-Prop, (i.e F27) before long it became pure jet.

As aviation progresses the yardstick will keep moving, but the reality of command will stay the same.

In my own case I was fortunate in that the airline that I was flying for had some command opportunities that could be filled by pilots whilst still holding F/O rank, i.e Flying Doctor Service, or Twin Otters based in New Guinea.

It usually entailed giving up the coziness of your home base and the right seat of a B-727 or similar, but it meant command hours flown and logged in an airline structure. I opted for the Twin Otter, flying single pilot IFR on airline scheduled routes based in New Guinea.

This early command - I was 27 at the time - coupled with some other career decisions soon led a progression from larger Turbo-Props to heavy jets, but always as a captain.

So, getting back to the original question. How important is getting your first jet command ?

In my opinion, achieving a command in any major airline is an important step in a pilots career, and if it's on a heavy jet, and these days it probably will be, the bigger the better. Sometimes other sacrifices need to be made to achieve it, but if you are a career pilot these need to be made to achieve your goals.

Here's a different spin...
 

Well, I believed the same: that command time is king.

I was a Fokker 50 F/O not long ago, and was given the opportunity to become either a F100 F/O, or a F50 Captain.

I chose F50 Captain. And I love the job a lot, but now it seems that if I wanted to go anywhere, I would need jet time!!! :hmm:

There are only a handful of operators that will see the merit in heavy turboprop command time over jet F/O time in this day and age.....

Agree?

Could well be, however...I would not be one of them if I was hiring, for a jet position.
It has always been my thought that Captains have quite a few more 'street smarts' than a First Officer, and...I've seen it proven time and time again.
This is not to say, of course, that there are not some mighty fine First Officers available.

I flew with a recently ex RAF Herc captain whom some of the other captains found to be a little abrasive.
I, OTOH, thought: 'This guy is sharp, knows his stuff and may get me out of the dwang one day' and so it came to pass that a malevolent sim trainer wrote a vicious LOFT scenario and, whilst I was thinking "Fvck me!", lo, the erstwhile officer suggested a plan, nay, THE plan which we successfully executed before departing to the bar and rejoicing. :ok: