"Stefan" wrote in message
...
David B. Cole wrote:

But does it make sense to do the multi before the Comm, and would I
receive more benefit from following my original plan?

It depends on what you mean with "make sense". But whatever route you'll
go, I strongly believe that it makes most sense to do acro first. This
will enhance your stick and rudder skills like nothing else.

You hear this bit of wisdom a lot, but I am beginning to question it. I will
grant that there may be some value in upset recovery training. I doubt there
is a lot to be learned from a tailwheel endorsement that will improve your
'stick and rudder skills.' In fact, I am beginning to wonder whether anyone
can give a realistic appraisal of what 'stick and rudder skills' even are.
If by 'stick and rudder skills' you mean the ability to maintain altitude,
airspeed, heading, and coordinated flight, then I would say that the
instrument rating probably is the most valuable in enhancing these skills.

I have not seen people who do aerobatics training show a lot of improvement
in such basic skills as ground reference maneuvers or commercial maneuvers.
What I have seen is that too many of them *think* they are better when in
fact they are not. Perhaps there is a lot of bad aerobatics training going
on out there and I am seeing the result of it. Whatever. For now I regard
aerobatics and tailwheel training as diversions that use time and money that
could be better spent in improving the basic skills you were supposed to be
learning in the first place.