Crash One.
Flying Instruction is a 2 way street. It takes an instructor who is ready to teach and a student who is ready to learn. What I get out of your post is that neither was present.
Personally I tell all my students that all they are committing to is the first 5 hours. At that point we sit and evaluate if this is going to work. On numerous occasions over the years the answer has been no. It doesn't matter why but if it is not working for what ever reason than I have absolutely no problem with setting them up with someone else.
This procedure has served me well and I recommend it to both students and instructors. Life is too short for students to put up with bad instructors, or instructors to put up with students with a bad attitude.
Shaggy Sheep Driver
Aviate-Navigate-Communicate is a meaningless platitude unless the "How" is addressed. It is like saying "Be A Better PIlot", sounds nice but it is not very helpful advice.
Lets take for example the tragic Tomahawk EFATO accident. In this case the engine failed but the climb attitude was maintained until the airplane stalled and spun.
So how do you train for the "aviate" part for this scenario. Well what I do is require all my ab initio students do a takeoff brief before every takeoff. The first thing on the brief is "wheel forward establish gliding attitude". While they are verbalizing this I get them to physically push the control wheel forward. My hope is that this will become an automatic reaction that will save their life in the event of an EFATO.
Pace
I think you missed my point regarding the approach speed. At the moment the landing flare starts there is only one "right" speed. Any slower and there will not be enough energy for a full flare and the risk of a heavy touchdown. Any faster and there will be excessive float. You are correct than the approach can be flown at any speed but an approach flown at various speeds requires the judgement skills to manage the approach so the airplane is at the right speed at the start of the flare. This judgement requires experience. Since we are discussing ab initio instruction this experience will by definition not be there.
In any case if the student or new PPL can't fly an approach at a constant selected airspeed on a stable flight path than trying to teach them to do an approach with varying airspeeds is an exercise in futility.
The problem as I see it is that many students and new PPL's
can fly a good stable approach at a constant selected airspeed, except the speed they are told to use is too fast, making it much harder to get a good landing.
Originally Posted by
Chuck Ellsworth
I am not in the least worried about anyone digging into my background as a pilot to find something to discredit my opinions.
Seems a bit paranoid.......