Some interesting points of view from a lot of chaps out there. I suspect from your reaction that a few of you are not instructors. Those of you that are, are you really suggesting that a student should be taught a flight excercise (And we are talking about ex13 - Note the number, it bears a direct relationship to the stage of the entire flight training syllabus) without first giving a THOROUGH ground briefing?
Only one of the contributors (Sorry can't remember your name off the top of my head) recognised and enourmous potential benefit of a good pattered demonstration of an approach to land and he is quite correct in his comment that the reason most instructors opt for the "Let the student fly it and then take control approach" is that the correct method (pattered demo) is far more difficult!
As for the comment about just pointing the nose towards the runway, setting the correct power and correct flap setting - tell me. What was the correct power setting for an approach in a piper arrow for runway 19 at Redhill at 14:00 Today?
Would it be the same as the approach at 14:00 last Sunday?
I think (or at least hope!) that you see my point. which is that the correct power setting for any given approach on any given type of aircraft will vary according to conditions. You guys all understand this and can deal with it without any problem because you are all experienced pilots and you have been taught how to manage your ROD & airspeed. After 4 hours on a correctly structured course of training the student has not.
I'm not sure how the thread drifted towards Taxying and Radio operation! I agree that your instructor should introduce you to both of the above sooner rather than later. We teach Taxying from day 1 - We teach RT from day 1. We do not teach ex 13 from day 1.