Originally Posted by aloft  Well, considering you were what, 15 years old when you had 500 hours in your logbook, it's no wonder you feel that way. When you subtract all that time you logged riding shotgun with your mom, your flight experience is probably close to typical regional hiring mins.
Not to engage in playa hatin' here, but the reason you're feeling that way is because of the fundamental difference between experience and hours logged; that is, actually getting something out of the time, instead of just adding more ink to your logbook. Really, how many hours of multi and even turbine time had you logged before you were even old enough to legally solo? Quite a bit, IIRC. Ask yourself what the qualitative difference between an hour you log now vs one logged when you were 14 is, and be honest with yourself. For starters, you're PIC, not your mom. You're legally responsible for the safe outcome of each flight, it's your certificate on the line, and there's no one to bail you out should you screw up. At 14 or 15, I doubt you could even get your brain around the notion of being responsible for the lives of others and property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. (That's not a dig on you, btw, just a cognitive reality.)
During all those hours logged riding shotgun with your mom, how many times was the go/no-go decision yours to make? How often were you the one to decide whether you really had enough fuel, given the greater-than-forecast headwinds and the three extra pax your customer brought with them? How many times was your systems knowledge tested by an engine that didn't sound right, and how many times did you make the decision to divert because of it?
Sorry to use you as an example, Alex, but you make a great case in point for all those guys who think they're ready for a jet cockpit at 300 hrs, because they haven't faced most of those challenges, either.
That said, I do have to commend you because you're even thinking about these issues now, at a still relatively young age. |