I might be reading your post wrong, but...

Sounds like you might be saying that because one guy who got his waiver with a propellor driven aircraft was underqualified, we should perhaps not allow others to get their waiver that way ?

Using the same logic for a mo - If I happen to know of one guy who got his waiver via DFs, who is underqualified and arguably unsafe - should we then also prevent people from getting their waiver via the DF route ? If so, now how do you go about getting your waiver ?

We shouldn't look down on prop aircraft - quite a few of them are actually harder to fly in various respects than some of our entry-level turbine aircraft. As an extreme example - have you ever tried your hand at a 280 cc 50lb 1/4 scale Lancair that flies at 240 mph and corners like there's no tomorrow ? Watch someone fly a tight, level, racecourse with that aircraft and then land it by cutting the engine up to 1/4 mile before touchdown. That means he's quite capable of flying that heavy, complex beast with no propwash over the controls BTW - and that is one of our reasons for liking a DF for sign-off !! Does anyone seriously want to tell me that a guy who can safely and repeatedly do the above is not qualified to fly a turbine because he didn't fly a ducted fan airplane first ?

I know that's an extreme example, but sometimes you need to use the extremes to show where the logical conclusion of a particular line of thought or type of argument leads.

My point here is simply that while the type of aircraft being used for a sign-off does matter, I don't believe it should be the b-all and end-all. It's the pilot's skill and experience that should really matter, and the type of aircraft used for the sign-off primarily matters IMO in that it must be sufficient to allow a fair assesment of that skill to be made.

BTW, I am one of the 2 TCDs in the area where Bob (Sideshow) lives; the other is the hugely experienced Chris Huhn, whose help will also be sought for buddy boxing Bob on his first X turbine flights. If I sign Bob off on his Patriot, and then Chris buddy-boxes with him and proclaims him incapable of flying safely .. well, I quite simply would never live that down - so you can bet that just because Bob will use a propjet for the sign-off, that certainly won't mean he'll be let off the leash before he's ready !

Gordon