Not really true. Dummys are more likely to make bad decisions, but even a smart person with good common sense needs a frame of reference for his decision making. Judgement does not occur objectively in a vacuum...you need that frame of reference, which in this industry is measured in quality and quantity of flight experience.
Just to add my two cents worth, the CFI route is the best preparation for future airline CA's because the CFI gets:
- Stick and rudder skills.
- REAL PIC, not "supervised solo" on "school approved routes".
- CRM/personality management skills.
- The ability to judge when instant corrective action is required.
- Multi-tasking.
- Innate understanding (through repetition) of the underlying techniques which are required for the various tasks which comprise piloting.
- Less performance and redundancy in GA airplanes...this means that you learn to think your way out of problems, often through anticipation. 300 airline pilots don't get this, they think the power levers will solve any problem.
- While flying with students, you learn to expect the unexpected!
Our military forces do many things extremely well, and the foundation of this is always repetition, repetition, and more repetition. The same applies to flying...when things get busy, it's nice to able to fall back on the basics without having to think about it. Is CFI work repetetive? Sure...but that's a good thing! Like others have said, an airplane is an airplane. I happen to land a 172 just like an airliner...crab all the way down, then kick it out in the flare.
Some qualifiers...
While few CFI's just do circles around the flagpole, the best CFI experience will come from teaching multiple ratings, including CFII and MEI work. Busy airspace is also very enlightening.
Long-range x-country flying is not the norm, but most CFI's get some of that experience doing repos, babysitter flights, or ME time-building. If you're going to rent a twin, you may as well GO somewhere...
Your own stick and rudders skills are greatly enhanced by teaching others to do it. But for some reason this doesn't work so well with instrument skills...CFI's get rusty, and will need to refresh themselves in the sim.
Other forms of experience building can provide a somewhat different experience base, but CFIing has the broadest set of useful learning for the entry-level pro pilot. Not bashing non-CFI's, just providing some info for those who haven't chosen their path yet. Oh yeah, remember: Non-cfi's cannot really speak acurately of the CFI experience because they have never done it. But all CFI's can speak of being low-time pilots...we all had to be there once
