Hi Silverfox
Not being an instructor I don't have your in depth view of teaching people to fly. I did however, learn ... so I guess that does give me some idea of how it's done.
In my case I originally learnt to fly gliders, which by their very nature, tends to require you to learn landings very early on. The average early flights last only a few minutes so you make the most of the whole flight. I soloed in under 4 hours with 32 landings to my credit, so as you'll see, landing can be taught within a very short time. I'm not saying this to blow my own trumpet as many glider pilots go solo very quickly (especially the young ones, I was 18 at the time). My point is ... surely there is more to it than just teaching in a set pattern or by excersises in a defined order? I realise training needs to be structured, but if "X" must always be taught before "Y", what happens when the weather prevents this? Surely on days when upper airwork is not possible, circuit and landing training can be achieved? or do you just cancel and say "sorry mate ... until you've done X I can't possibly start to teach you Y"? With our weather you'd take for ever to learn if a rigid 1,2,3 approach is used.
I do wonder if some instructors find it easier or in their own minds safer to hold back on the first solo until they have virtually taught the fledgling pilot everything. I recently had a student tell me that she couldn't go solo before 25 hours as that was the law? ... since when? I think her instructor was being a wee bit economical with the truth there!
SS