Aerodynamic Balance

[Lead Sled]

I used to think that same thing...back in the few thousand hour level...but now I see another level of knowledge and experience begins to appear when you have many, many thousands of hours of repeating...

That may indeed be true for some instructors, but I've yet to see it and I've been a CFI for 30 years. As a working corporate chief pilot and flight department manager what I have seen, time and time again, is high-time (up to 7,000 hours of dual given) CFIs who can't make it in the "real world". It doesn't matter if they've jumped through the hoops to get a type-rating or two (or three or four), if they don't have the practical experience of dealing with weather, ATC, etc they're going to be behind the "power curve" if you know what I mean. When you climb into the cockpit with a 5,000 hour pilot you expect to have a certain amount of experience and background. High time CFIs can fly and explain the various training manuevers; they can quote you day in and day out what the various FAA books say about weather, ice, etc. but they often don't have the "hands on", "real world" experience that you must have to suppliment all of that book learning. Put those guys in a cockpit when you've got some serious IFR flying to do and they're propbably not going be able to contribute at the level of your expectations.

'Sled