DFC,
Please find me an AOC-holder who will offer me a flight over my house or a prominent local feature, and let me take control for the majority of the flight. In fact, find me an SOP which will allow that.
The fact that the flight over-flies the student's house or a prominent feature does not mean it is not a lesson - it is all part of the experience of flying, since that's what private flying as all about. The fact that the person doing the course might not want to continue does not matter - I've had students who want to go solo but no further, but the fact that they only want to do part of the course does not make what I do with them any less instructional than a student who goes through the whole course, and likewise what you do with a trial lesson who has no intention of coming back need not be less instructional because they are not coming back. Who pays for the flight has no bearing on the content of the flight.
There are well-documented stories of AOC holders getting into serious trouble for letting non-pilots handle the controls - even experienced crew members such as cabin crew, let alone the general public. I can only think of one person in two years of doing trial lessons who didn't want to touch the controls at all - every other trial lesson flight I've done, the majority of which you say should have been public transport, I say would have been illegal under public transport rules, but are perfectly valid lessons.
FFF
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