Originally Posted by bryris

Being a CFI is more than just sitting in the right seat squawking "more right rudder". YOU are PIC through and through. If anything were to happen, who is going to get burned? Plus, if you add in the randomity factor of what a student might do or not do, it creates a similar situation to airline flying, where you must be aware of everything that is going on whether you are physically doing it or not.

It is a fact that 16-18 year olds get into more car crashes. Why? Certainly hormones and things are a factor, but experience is the factor as well.

I believe there is a benefit that is hard to quantify from having more experience. This probably goes deeper than you think. Having command over the whole environment is more than just being able to hold 45 degs +/- for a 360 turn.

Now that I have been driving my car for 11 years, its basically automatic. I've seen a lot of things and so the chances of experiencing something new are reduced. Flying is getting this way as I close in on 2,000 hours. There is no doubt that I could fly a visual approach in the RJ to a successful landing without a single instrument available to me. Even airspeed can be judged based on visual and aural queues, sink rate as compared to pitch attitude, etc. That only comes with some experience.

1,000 hours doesn't equal another 1,000 hours. Towing banners up and down the beach on Saturday is a far cry from zooming though the soup with a new instrument student. But that is what interviews are for!