I am all for having experienced instructors. That said, I still think you ought to be a line pilot to qualify for check airman. When the YX guys get a number on the master list, then they are more than welcome to run the sims and all that. But RAH does not use "management" pilots for check airmen, and I don't want to start that precedent now. Line pilots look after line pilots. Management pilots do as they are told, or else they let go. That may not be the case everywhere, but at RAH, management dictates downward only. There is only one way to do things, and it is rarely your own.
I think the real thought to take away from all this is that RAH feels that they do not have nearly enough check airman in the short term. Our current check airmen are not really over worked, and there are still viable candidates on the line who would like to step up. I think there is some major need for high training output. Growth, perhaps. A rebid of seat/aircraft expected from the SLI arbitrator, possibly. But one thing is for sure, more check airmen means more training.