Originally Posted by
JamesNoBrakes
A lot of people get the CFI to build hours, that's great as long as you provide good instruction.
Agreed. Being willing and able to provide good instruction is the key.
Some people don't need that because they have a plane or access to a plane/hrs/a job where they can do the same.
Sure....that works too.
Some people say they don't want to be a CFI because they don't want the responsibility, don't want to have to teach someone, etc. I'd be wary of these people, as airlines look for future captains that have these traits and qualities. By no means that does that require a CFI, but these are poor reasons to avoid it.
Again, agreed. Especially these days, the 2nd primary duty of a Captain is to teach the FOs how to be a good Captain when their time comes. It's a mentoring position. Of course, their first duty is to get the passengers, crew, and aircraft safely from point A to point B.
Unfortunately, in the recent past(3-5 years or so, in my experience), many up and coming pilots have the attitude of "I have 1500 hours, I'm ready to be a Captain at Legacy carrier XYZ". Now, maybe I'm curmudgeon in my old(40 something) age, but I think that a lot of the kids coming up in aviation today have a severely overinflated ego. In that same time, being a Captain has gone from a mentoring position to an "entitled" position, all other things be damned.
Aviation is going to be in a world of hurt in 20 years, IMO.