It's something you need years of experience at to lead the airwing effectively and to have the judgement to make the appropriate calls on issues.
BS. Do you need years of experience as an Infantry Officer to be an effective COCOM? Do you need years of experience as an Intelligence Officer to be an effective Director of the CIA? On a lower level, do you need years of experience as an Infantry Officer to be a Company Commander?
Leadership is leadership. A good leader can stand up in front of a group of people and lead them, and will likely also be able to see the big picture and make appropriate decisions.
Adm Fallon was an NFO, and was CENTCOM in the middle of two wars. How much experience did he have in land warfare? ZERO.
Gen Patreus is a career infantry officer, and is now the Director of the CIA. How much experience does he have in intelligence? ZERO.
I'm a pilot, and a forward air controller. Yet, I was the H&S Company Commander in an Infantry Battalion. Yup. ZERO experience.
My point being, good leaders lead. Doesn't matter what their background is, or how much experience they have. All that leads to is how steep their learning curve is. I'd bet the rest of my paychecks from now until the day I retire that there are RW aviators in the Navy that are MORE than capable of leading a carrier airwing.
The same thing happens in the Marine Corps. When has there EVER been an aviator that was Commandant? After all, you've got to have YEARS of experience as an Infantry/MAGTF officer in order to effectively lead a MEF, much less the Marine Corps. So, for 234 years - the USMC didn't have an aviator as Commandant. Now we have a broken time, former airline pilot, naval aviator as Commandant. And he was a former commander of II MEF as well.
Sorry, but I disagree. A MEF Commander has a lot more than just strike to think about, and II MEF didn't fail miserably with a non-traditional aviator at the helm. I don't think a CAG would either.