viper548
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2004
- Posts
- 2,090
You're right, it's not the number of hours, it's the quality of flight time that's important. The biggest problem I see with new FO's is radio communications. Often they're not aggressive enough in trying to get a call in (SLC ramp). IMO the best hours a flight instructor can get is working as a CFII doing the cross country flights into busy airports. There's only so much that can be learned teaching turns around a point and lazy 8's for 700 hours. Being a CFI will teach you a lot about being assertive in the cockpit and that will be a necessary skill once upgrading to captain. I hope the interviewers are taking a hard look at what type of flight time the lower hour applicants are getting.The more I work as an FO, the more convinced I am that it's not the number of hours that dictates the pilot's level of skill. There are far more factors than just that. It's actually a little refreshing to see my company acknowledge that fact.
-Goose