Having many thousands of hours in the air is not necessarily a good guide to a good aviator at all. There are a great many pilots around with half of those huge totals who are far better, safer and competent.
I knew of an old pilot in Australia who wanted to retire with as many hours as possible so he remained on the DC4 freighter to do this. Trouble was he would plug the auto pilot in not long after take off , slide his seat back and go to sleep and tell the F/O to wake him on mid descent . He did this on every flight as most were back of the clock and he literally slept through 75% of his flights.
The huge number of hours were mostly gained whilst asleep so that does not make him a good aviator. If one did not know one would think that with so many hours he must be so experienced and a brilliant pilot.
Hours do not make the man , experience does and especially when flying and being awake.
