Originally Posted by
Nantonaku
How many hours did Renslow have when he was hired at Gulfstream and subsequently when hired at Colgan? You don't think practicing and teaching students to do stalls for hours and hours on end would prevent a pilot from later dying in a stall? Just the muscle memory alone from demonstrating and teaching someone else for 100 hours very well might have prevented the accident.
This was the whole issue the ATP Rule was designed to prevent, as a rule. Too many guys, Renslow included, spent most of their times as pilots being supervised by instructors (up to CSEL/CMEL) then swinging gear in the right seat of a pay to play. They only ever operated an aircraft with strict supervision of an instructor or Captain.
Spending that time from 250 to 1000 or 1500 hours is critical to developing your skills as a PIC. This is especially true an instructor. It isn't just looking out the window while your student beats up the pattern. It's about watching what they are doing and finding different ways to teach them in areas of operation beyond just straight and level, airline-style operations. As a CFI, you see thousands of stalls and many incipient spins. You watch your students get you into situations and learn how they got themselves into those situations and you learn from those experiences, with your students. In those initial years, you cement your skills as an aviator because you will not use them again except for every year or two in recurrent. The important thing is learning how to keep yourself OUT of those situations and how to recover once in them.