Not sure what makes an expert exactly, but I know that it takes a lot of time & effort. I don't really think I would want to be an expert at any one thing. I'd rather be better than average at a lot of different things. Might miss out on other things that I could enjoy if I spend all of my time becoming an expert at one thing. Example, pattern flying, (and I am not knocking pattern flyers) to be able to perform the patterns takes A LOT of practice. In that same amount of time that I would be practicing patterns, I could be seeing if I can do an inverted flyby 6 - 10 feet off the ground, or maybe trying a 3-d plane, or trying to figure out exactly how to get a plane to do a lomchevak (I can't spell that for sheet or pull the manuever off yet either). That's my 2 cents, or maybe 1/2 a cent since I'm not an expert writer.