FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - AC- Nervous Flyer, advice on flight path?
Old Feb 17, 2015 | 6:52 pm
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Originally Posted by superangrypenguin
Really? Don't they have fewer flying hours than say a widebody captain? (Captain vs Captain) - *in general, not the odd cases.
Pilots on longhauls log huge numbers of hours while 90% of the time they're in cruise, basically doing nothing. Also there are two pilots (sometimes 3) so landings are divided between them. A longhaul pilot could conceivably fly for a year and only execute about 50 or 60 landings. Some shorthaul pilots could do that many approaches and landings in a single week. Recency is a huge thing for proficiency.

Anyway, I offer that argument not because I believe it means you'll get a "better" pilot on an Embraer but, rather, to make the point that it just isn't that clear cut. In some situations experience will trump recency and sharpness while in other situations it's the other way around.

Case in point: Asiana. Pilot was reportedly uncomfortable shooting a visual approach. Probably because he hadn't done one for months. It would be difficult for a shorthaul pilot to fly one week without a few visual approaches.

(And to the OP, there's a BIG difference between Air Canada and Asiana)
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