There's absolutely nothing wrong with letting a TIF student do a take-off or following the instructor on the landing. It is a Trial INSTRUCTIONAL Flight. At what point would you let any other student do a take off? Wait until they get up to circuits?
Relax..Chill out old chap -no need to "SHOUT" with the word instructional.
No matter how thorough a preflight briefing, a TIF student who may never have flown before is not going to remember a single word about how to conduct a take off or a landing. He certainly would not comprehend the concept behind the combined operation of rudder, rudder pedals, brakes use with rudder pedals and the limited nose-wheel steering available via the operation of the rudder pedals during a take-off roll or a landing roll.
It is common to see first time people buying a "Flight Experience" in these generic Boeing 737NG flight training devices that have sprung up in most capital cities, reverting to turning the control wheel instead of using the rudder pedals while attempting to control the aircraft on the take off run and going off the side of the runway. And that's in a aircraft simulator- not the real thing like an aeroplane at Moorabbin. Add to that the engine noise on take off, the cacophony of radio transmissions at a place like Moorabbin, a head-set jammed on his head and the babble to the TIF person of unintelligible coaching from the instructor, the hapless student hasn't a clue what he is supposed to be achieving.
No wonder it gets still more confusing when he is told to pull back on the wheel and jerks the plane into the air while at the same time he feels the instructor is overriding everything he does including grabbing the wheel. What a really intelligent way to introduce a potential student to his first flight experience. And that is only the first 30 seconds of his flight. The keen, enthusiastic instructor has yet to teach him how to land if that is included in the TIF.
Surely if the aim of the exercise is to give the TIFFer an enjoyable first introduction to flying, then he would learn more by watching the instructor demonstrate/patter a take off. TIF's should be only of 30 minutes duration and let the student do simple manoeuvres such as level flight, turning and setting requested power settings. Point to the clouds and tell him the names, Cumulus etc. Show him the compass and the direction of the cardinal points by looking out of the cockpit to the north and east and so on. But avoid packing in superfluous patter while he is having a go at the controls.
There is an art to conducting a TIF and over-instruction or anything sudden or frightening or overwhelming of the senses must be avoided if you hope the student will return another day.
To try and talk through the student into a final approach and landing is most unwise for all the reasons explained earlier. And he won't learn a thing except feelings of utter confusion and worst of all he will feel foolish and embarrassed as the instructor rides him on the controls to the extent he won't know who is up who and who is paying the rent.
There is an old saying that new instructors should never forget when talking someone into a TIF. "People will forget what you said...people will forget what you did....But people will never forget how you made them feel."
