Originally Posted by
OvertHawk
It's normal for "trial lessons" or "experience flights" which are effectively pleasure flights with a shot of the controls rather than actual lessons as part of a syllabus.
They are often given as gifts to people who have no real expectation of going any further with the training.
But since they are "lessons" rather than pleasure flights they can be operated by flying schools rather than AOCs.
Trial lessons are a huge part of the economics of many flying schools and giving the "student" a good experience that they tell their friends about is very heavily emphasised.
Worse than that as a PPLH one can do a short introductory flight ( no hands on ) with a pax, the idea being to introduce someone to flying. Interestingly a short introductory flight has to be less than 1.5 hours. doesnt state if one can take pax or not !!!!!
If a an air experience flight ( aka trial lesson ) which is lesson 3 it is up to the instructor how much flying the " student " does