Do you select first stage downwind, and second stage on base leg; or do you leave flaps alone downwind and apply 2 stages of flap on base?
Who cares?!?
For an early student, the most important thing is to have a consistent way of doing things. It really makes very little difference what that consistent way is. At our school we teach 2 stages of flap on base. The reasoning is that (on a C152 at least) reducing power, adding two stages of flap, and slowing to 70kt results in very little trim change overall, so easier to do it all in one go.
Having said that, if a student came to me from another school and had been doing things differently, I would let them get on with it, because trying to change things at this stage of their training is nearly always going to do more harm than good.
With just a little bit of experience, we learn to adapt to the situation, and use flaps as required. I remember when I got checked out on the PA18, with about 60 hours total time, I was baffled by the fact that there were only 2 stages of flaps, and I wasn't sure when to lower them since the PA28 I'd trained on had 3 stages. My instructor said to me "You've got a PPL, you can figure out when to lower flaps yourself by now." How true that turned out to be.
FFF
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