50 hours dual and too dangerous for first solo.
A student has logged 50 hours of dual and according to his instructors is too dangerous to send solo. What is the solution? Should the flying school CFI:
1. Tell the student to go away (nicely, of course)
2. Ask CASA to send out an FOI to fly with him with the view of advising the student to give up flying for his own safety and possibly others who will share the same airspace. Po-active instead of re-active precaution.
3. Continue to take his money but without any intention of getting him solo because of a well founded fear the student would crash on his own. And what if the student is hell-bent on wanting to go solo and will pay anything to achieve that aim.
This dilemma is one that flying schools occasionally strike. Assuming that several instructors have genuinely tried their best to help the student reach a safe standard for first solo, and all to no avail, then commercial issues (accepting his money) should surely be a lower priority than flight safety issues (a danger to himself and others if flying solo).
In the military the solution is simple. Scrub him when it is obvious he won't go solo within 12 hours. Not so simple in the commercial world where average time to first solo varies markedly between flying schools and is around 15 hours up to 20 hours. With inexperienced instructors teaching new students thus the blind leading the blind in some cases, the time to first solo is often very high. Commercially that is good because the money goes to the school and instructor. Not so good for the student.
But 50 hours is something else and what is the moral responsibility of the flying school operator in these cases?