Hey guys, I'm new to this forum, so please bear with me as I try to get my feet wet.
I personally agree with what Whiskey Kilo wrote. It's pretty interesting how this principle works. When I had 100 hours, I realized that I really knew a lot about aviation. When I had 500 hours I was practically ready to be an ATP. When I had 1000 hours, well that was it, I knew it all - or so I thought. Here I am, some twelve thousand hours later and I can't believe how much I don't know.
Accidents seem to cluster at certain distinct points: 100 hours, 500 hours, 1000 hours, 3000 hours, 10000 hours, and 20000 (if I remember correctly). This occurs not only with total time, but also with “time in type”. There is a real tendency to get too comfortable and let your guard down. A 10000-hour pilot with 3000 hours in type needs to be careful that he doesn’t get complacent or he too, will get bit. Unfortunately, over the years, I have known many good pilots who have died in aircraft accidents. When it happens, it is a VERY sobering experience. All too often, as you look back on the events surrounding the accident it becomes very apparent that, in many cases, it was very avoidable. It’s all too easy to let bad operating practices creep into our day-to-day flying. Like the guy said when St. Peter met him at the Pearly Gates, “It never killed me before!”
The problem with inexperience is that you haven't developed the ability to know when to say "no" and your experience level isn't great enough to handle a lot of "what if" scenarios. Nowadays, low-time pilots have a broad range of knowledge, it just doesn't run very deep. That's what experience does - deepens your knowledge and understanding.
I only earn my money on those very infrequent days that I have to tell my boss "no". When the weather is good and when the equipment is operating correctly it doesn't take much of a pilot to do my job. It's when we have to deal with "difficult" weather, "belligerant" equipment, and/or "challenging" airports that I earn my money. In other words, I get paid to say "no". However, they expect me to have the skill and experience to only say "no" when it is the only safe option. Inexperienced pilots get into trouble when they say "no" and it wasn't necessary or when they don't say "no" when it was.
As far as experience goes, there is a big difference between 500 hours of experience and 1 hour of experience repeated 500 times.
Oh well, I'd better get off my soapbox.
The Jetlag Kid