[jcs1744]

It is true that there are very many poor flight schools around that will let anyone through as long as they pass their FAA check-rides and tests. However, there are also a ton of great schools out there. There also aren't even close to enough military pilots out there to keep the airlines flying. I went to a four-year university with a very respected commercial flight program. Although I did not major in professional flight, I had to go through a lot of a flight training. Safety was our foremost concern.

KEEP THIS IN MIND ALSO: The captain may not have been pilot-in-command. The FO might have been at the controls and the pilot may have been operating the radios. I don't know how Comair works, but on many airlines, the captain and FO alternate PIC duties.

[Pukin Dog]

Let me be clear on this, I am not putting down civilian flight schools. I am only pointing out that they have a different agenda. Outside the military, it is very difficult to evaluate how someone is going to respond during an emergency situation because candidates are not competing with each other, but only with the curriculum. They have a checklist of stuff you have to learn, and when you learn it, you are good to go. They don't put you through the things that determine your character during an in-flight emergency. Sure, you sim all that stuff, but tell me this, how many civilian flight schools are going to take their students to FL400, shut down the engines, roll it on its back and say, "ok, you've got it"? If they do air-starts, I doubt they shut all engines off. You just don't get the pressures that separate the good from the marginal. That is all I am saying, and I am not putting down commercial aviation.

[OBXWanderer]

KEEP THIS IN MIND ALSO: The captain may not have been pilot-in-command. The FO might have been at the controls and the pilot may have been operating the radios. I don't know how Comair works, but on many airlines, the captain and FO alternate PIC duties.

I am hearing someone was also in the jumpseat.

[diogenes ghost]

Capt is ALWAYS pilot in command. If there ir reference to who was at the controls at a certain time, he is referred to as "pilot flying", and other is "pilot not flying".