Breaking Strain
The candidate is P1.S and therefore acting as PIC. However the FE has signed for the aircraft and IS the PIC. If the aircraft were to bus airspace then the FE is the only person who can be blamed for not taking control before the incursion happened.
I have let students head straight towards CAS both laterally and vertically and asked more and more pressing questions as they approach but you have to take control and point out the error before it occurs, surely.
I am not a great fan of people below saying well I don't believe that is all there is to the story. The thread is what the thread is, even if we take it as hypothetical, what IMHO the poster is saying is that this IS what happened so lets discuss it as if it is gospel as surely that's the fun of the debate?
So back on thread, for a PPL FE to set up failure is in my view fairly pointless, I think CPL FEs should and loved that military FEs often did but that is because I feel that different qualifications things are being awarded with which the holder will do very very different things and too that end I think that this balance is right.
I am however not an FE so my view is that of an FI, from the FI view though I will not release a student to and FE who I am not sure will pass as I think it makes me look bad and if a CFI is insistent (normally due to cost to the student in my experience) then I ask them to fly with them and release them to test.
In sum if I have released them to test and they fail because they do something stupid then it is not an overall level of competence but failure is failure and if they allow anyone much less an FE to put them in that position then they deserve to fail as they should level off and say they cannot continue into CAS if not question the original request.
VT