Crash Lander wrote:
I'm surprised. I never knew how it all worked. That leaves the whole
'minimum number of hours required' thing a bit open to fudging doesn't it?
Crash Lander

Possibly, but as others have pointed out, it's hard for someone to
significantly falsify their log book and not get caught eventually - if
those hours are actually used as a basis for something. For example, a
pilot with a few hundred hours in a little Cessna 172 could claim
thousands of hours in MD-80's and A340's - but as soon as he applied
for a job and went into the simulator... well, you get the idea.

So it does happen (pilots used to talk about logging "P-51" time; the
P-51 Mustang being a piston fighter everyone wanted to fly, but in
reality referring to only having access to the "Parker P-51" fountain
pen to write the entry in the log book G). Rarely does it happen
such that you actually wind up with a truly unqualified pilot at the
controls of an aircraft because he fudged the hours.

NOW - as to the hours and types of aircraft a pilot may CLAIM to have
flown, when he's at the bar and trying to pick up the sweet young thing
on the stool next to him... Well, that's another matter entirely!
{:) [These tales traditionally start with the words, "There I
was..."]