I tried to think back to my training 25+ years ago to recall if I had done anything to give my CFI brown stains in his shorts. I was fortunate that my training was very uneventful when I had the CFI onboard.
During my solo time I lost the engine in the Bell 47G2 I was flying. I was at 500' in the pattern of a very rural airport, flying into a 10 knot wind, no wires, lots of open area. There wasn’t much my CFI could do but watch. Up to that point, I had just done power recovery autos. My first full touchdown auto was a non-event. Not a scratch on the A/C. Looks like the power recovery autos work. Gotta love the Bell 47. Everything happened really fast. I smelled oil burning, there was a severe engine vibration then it got really quiet. I made a slight 5 degree turn to the landing are I liked best, flared, pulled pitch & was down just like that. I just sat there for a few seconds listening to the blades wind down while I shut the mags, alt & battery off. (Bell 47's are so simple). The only grip my CFI had was that I didn’t land closer to the ramp to make it easier to load & trailer the A/C.
While I wasn’t the ace of the base by a long shot, I tried really hard to not do anything really stupid. I ran into my old instructor a few years ago & he greeted me warmly so I must have not scared him too severely.
Not long after I got my license I went to a school closer to my home to get a check out in a Hughes 300. Before my first lesson they wanted $2000 up front to get the block rate & more money on top of that for insurance for when I was passed my checkout. I seem to remember they wanted me to do 5 hours in their A/C for "insurance" before clearing me to rent their A/C. I was a bit suspicious about all the money they wanted up front so I just paid the higher hourly rate without giving then the $$$ they wanted up front. My CFI was newly minted CFI was French. I could not understand him half the time.
The first flight we just go fly around the general area, no pattern work. I wasn’t exactly a high time pilot at the time but I did have my license & just over 100 hours PIC working toward my commercial rating. Even though the 300 were a bit different than the Bell 47 I had no problem with the actual flying of the 300.
My next lesson I get paired up with "Frenchie" again. He tells me to go out & preflight while he chats on the phone with his babe. I finish the preflight & wait by the A/C not desiring the long walk back to the hangar. Frenchie shows up after about an hour & tells me to follow him back to the hangar. Frenchie takes me to the classroom & give me a chalk talk on how to fly the pattern. I'd flown in & out of this airport numerous times. After the big 5 min chalk talk, we go fly.
After the flight the guy tries to bill me for 1.2 hours ground instruction (while he was talking to his chick) in addition to the flight time. I said no freaking way. He tried to tag team me with the chief pilot but I stood my ground & pain him .1 ground, which was more then generous. When I told the chief pilot my side of the story & he still sided with his crooked CFI I know my relationship with that company was over.
I learned several things. When the company owner has an entire wall that is a shrine to him & they want a ton of money up front, it's a good idea to go elsewhere.
Anyway, that’s my bad CFI & flight school story. Hope it wan't too off topic.