Scudrunners

A young friend of mine in the USA - just slightly
older than my kids - just went from the rear seat
of a Waco UPF-7 to the right seat of a 747.

He has thousands of hours of biplane time,
(both Waco and Pitts) and thus has substantially
better stick & rudder skills than average -
but still, it struck me as a bit unusual.  He
will only have that ONE type rating on his
FAA ATP.

In Canada, that would take, what, 20 years
and five other types?

Indeed -- and to think that it's only very recently that F/O's in the US are actually type rated -- that always boggled my mind --

Back in mid 2000's it wasn't unheard of for the FO to still have temporary  certificate from flight school and find himself in ground school for an RJ. They upgraded when they could ~2000 TT. Fly for a year or two as PIC and move on to the big leagues.

The demand for pilots is vastly different down here.
If they could get away with it now, they would hire 250 hour wonders to swing gear in an RJ.