[conservatism_IS_compassion]

You are saying that in the modern glass cockpit the controls are so specialized that even an airline pilot couldn't land a type of plane he wasn't checked out on? What, does the cockpit run under Windows or something?!

[airplaneguy]

No I'm not saying it would be impossible for another pilot to fly an aircraft he wasn't checked out on but it would be difficult. Some of the systems operate differently and things like pressurization and pneumatic controls are in different spots. I think the software is Linex actually. Last night we had a software issue before we took off that caused a delay for about an hour. After a while you start to recognize airplane specific issues that might happen and how to deal with them.

Kinda like you have an old car the runs a certain way and the owner knows what certain noises are or how to get it to start in the cold. same thing with planes. For me personally it takes about 100 hours to get comfortable in each new type. about 5 weeks of flying or so.