CFI time is one of the most valuable things a person can have. You are flying an airplane through someone else who is inadvertently trying to crash it, while trying to make him better at flying than you are. If that isn't "Captain development / CRM practice" then I don't know what is! If you have 15 students, you probably have to figure out 15 different ways to explain the same material. You now know that material 15 times better than someone who has not done this. It "cements" the knowledge in you, as a wise pilot examiner once told me. It also teaches you how to deal with various types of personalities in the cockpit. It teaches you your limits, and when and how to take control of an airplane when someone exceeds them. It teaches you how to "guide" someone who is losing the SA plot to regain it before you HAVE to take control. It expands your "comfort zone" exponentially and teaches you how to be a "pilot monitoring". CRM.
You will learn to have the perfect balance of trust and mistrust by soloing students. You will learn that yes people CAN do it on their own when properly trained (by you) and vetted. This will make you better at not being a micromanaging jerk of a captain one day. It will also help you see QUICKLY when someone ISN'T ready for prime time, and teach you to be direct in putting the kibosh on such people when needed.
Being a instrument instructor teaches you to think 5 moves ahead of the airplane, instead of 2.
Twin instructing teaches you how not to freak out when an engine goes away. Because if you teach in piston twins long enough, eventually your student will feather one and won't be able to unfeather it. And you will make a real single engine approach and landing, through him.
Then one day you will train another instructor, and be utterly humbled by how little you really know compared to what the first 1000 hours of your CFI time led you to BELIEVE that you know. That will shock you into NEVER losing your thirst for knowledge. It will make you orders of magnitude more interested in the continuous pursuit of self-mastery within your own profession, while never giving yourself room to be arrogant. You will learn more from your students by teaching them, than they will learn by being taught. This will be a big deal in multi-crew operations. As a first officer you will be willing to flow with the rhythm of a captain you don't "mesh" with and try something new, rather than get bent out of shape and wasting a trip bleating a story in your own mind about being "told how to fly"; you will also learn as a captain to get out of the way and let your first officers do their jobs without micromanaging them.
Having spent time as as a pilot recruiter I can tell you that there is a BIG difference between an applicant to an airline who did the bare minimum CFI time they could, and someone who did a bunch of varied types of instructing and actually liked it. One got nothing out of it but time; they may have even let their CFI certificate lapse. The other learned true command leadership and CRM, cemented basic knowledge and airmanship into his psyche, and probably developed a cool head in unexpected situations.
If you do not respect CFI time I suggest that you go teach for a minimum of 2000 hours, as evenly distributed between PPL, IR, CPL, and multi-engine students as possible. Day, night, IMC, VMC, as many different students of all ages and backgrounds as possible. Teach a few instructors, too, once you've been doing it for a while. Then come back on here and tell me how worthless it is.
Last edited by hikoushi; 10th Sep 2016 at 08:51.