Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
My personal reaction is to feel even more strongly that I'm not willing to fly on a (now longer) list of airlines. I never have or would fly Lion Air, but to me it's a revelation that a respected international carrier like ET would hire a copilot with only 200 hours.
OTOH if there's a shortage of well qualified pilots, maybe the Airbus approach makes more sense as it seems to rely less on the skill and judgment of pilots.
Respectfully, skill and judgement of pilots is gained from experience. A 200 hour pilot can just as easily put an Airbus in the trees as a Boeing.
I started my career in a CRJ with around 700 flight hours. Looking back now, that was dangerous. 200 hours is unimaginable in a B737, you're just a warm body working the radios with that experience level.