My first flight carrying a passenger was number 468 in my log book. By flight 480, after being checked out in three flights by the National Coach in his Capstan, I was an assistant instructor. Two weeks later I was deputising for the Duty Instructor who was ill.
I was in no hurry to passenger fly or instruct, but we had an unexpected shortage of instructors in our club in mid !967, and the CFI pressed me to go on the course with the National Coach, and I was lumbered. I really wanted to go on just flying by myself, but I felt I had to put something back to help out the ex-ATC guys who had trained me. I think I did about 1700 trips instructing. Instructing severely limited my opportunities for solo flying and it took me 11 years to complete my Silver! Five hours done in '66, height in '67, and C/C in '77.