Genghis,
An excellent attempt. But where do you put helicopters? Or people like an instructor I know, who rarely goes beyond her immediate area, but puts on a C152 like it was an old familiar pair of shoes?
Finals,
I think I'm coming round to thinking the same way. Flying experience is a bit like life experience; it can be different for different individuals, but live/fly long enough, and you'll get it, whether you like it or not, unless perhaps you try very hard not to. Of course, some young people are mature beyond their years, and some low hours pilots (can't think of another term to use
) are surprisingly good. Conversely, you wonder what some old people or experienced pilots have actually learned in all their years of living/hours of flying. But I think these are probably rare exceptions.
I guess this could lead on to a question I've been thinking of posing: what actually makes a good pilot?
No, I'm not trying for the record for the longest ever PPRuNe thread with the most different opinions, honest!