FlyingDoc

There is real evidence to back up my contention that experience is important in such technically demanding professions. I'm certainly not a pilot, but I am a physician and in my profession, there's strong evidence that experience is really important in patient safety. There are now multiple studies in the medical literature showing that the death rate in hospitals that do a large number of coronary bypass operations is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than in hospitals that perform fewer operations. There is an outpatient surgery clinic in Canada that only does hernia operations, but they do many thousands a year. Their complication rate is much, much lower than others.

When a human is performing a technically demanding procedure, like performing heart surgery or landing a jet aircraft in stormy weather, you don't want a novice doing it for you. Experience does count in these things. My point is really that just in the last 3 years, major airlines, particularly DL, have substantially moved to these commuter flights which are usually piloted by those with less experience. Now, about 40% of DL flights are operated by these commuter companies whose pilots generally have less experience. That's a big move toward less experienced pilots and I think it is a safety issue. That's all.