SAS:
My point was that the constant angle approach is a 'building block' for other more advanced techniques, and should be taught from the beginning.
Perhaps I should not have muddied the waters with the ref to Hyd-out approaches, but you might be surprised how many there are out there who think that because the RFM says that 'X Kts' is the 'best IAS' hyd-out, they should fly the approach for as long as possible at that IAS: and then they have the difficulty of a large attitude change and rapidly changing control forces to get the aircraft under control for a gentle run on.
In 8 years of instructing modular CPL(H) students (BTW, that's the latest 8 years of being an instructor since 1980, and part of that time in a commercial school of a company in which you and I share previous lives) I can say that the most significant area of preparation that these modular students need for General Handling is in re-teaching constant angle approaches, so that they can cope with limited power and fly the expected techniques on test.
Last edited by idle stop; 3rd February 2010 at 20:28.