the CFI who did a lot with hand signals.
I remember him. He was one of the VERY good ones, and I am thankful he was still instructing in '78 when I was doing my PPL (he is now, sadly, long dead). A man of few words but superb technique. Up-a-bit was a flat and stiff horizontal hand executing an upward 'batting' gesture; the reverse for descending. Turns were the same, but the hand was held 'nose to tail' and batted either left or right. Lower flaps was the horizontal hand again, but a 'beak' made between thumb and forefinger, openeing and closing.
I beleive this came from his RAF instructing days on Noisy biplanes (I know he flew Wappities in the '30s RAF) with no RT.
One day, a student offered him a lift home from the club. He got into the car, and instead of "straight to the next junction, then left", it was those hand signals again!
These guys were the real characters of aviation, and are sadly missed. I feel privaleged to have flown with a few of them, including CR.
SSD
PS
Agree with Sir George about the muliplicity of instructors we had back then. Probably not as 'efficient' as the system employed today, but I loved it, and I think I gained from having so many techniques to learn from. It meant that the student had to be pro-active in guiding their own training or you'd end up doing the same lesson 3 times over. But it probably raised a more self sufficient generation of PPLs than we see today (OK, massive generalisaton, but I think the principle stands).
SSD