Originally Posted by
rickair7777
The key experience benefits that a 1000 or 2000 hour CFI has over a wet commercial are...
- The ability to talk on the radio, and more importantly an intuitive understanding of the traffic picture based on radio chatter. The wet commercial is focusing all of his little brain cells on simply not missing his call sign (he will anyway), he is tuning out all that OTHER radio stuff.
- An inherent suspicion of his CA, ATC, dispatch, etc. He is less inclined to blindly follow along, therefore he is a useful backup. The wet commercial provides very little backup on anything.
I wouldn't say a wet comm has poor atc skills. That's all dependent on the individual. I hear plenty of majors missing their callsign when I'm buzzing around here in SoCal.
What inherent suspicion with ATC, CA and dispatch? ATC has no idea whos flying the airplane. It could be the captain speaking for all they know. My point was with jet handling skills and simply keeping up with the aircraft as that's where a lot of adjustment is needed whether you are a CFI or wet commercial. CFIs and 250hr guys have two big things in common: they rarely to never exceed 130kts and have never flown a jet. The residual skills with dispatch, company operations and other ground school materials is a different thing and anyone can learn that stuff if they study it.