Originally Posted by
Celeste
This is really easy to do in the two-seat trainers that I instruct in.
I guess if I "actually try" I would have figured out how to dismember the second student, shove them in the baggage compartment, and then put them back together to fly us home on the return leg.
I am also finding this 50nm XC the hardest minimum to meet. I try to drag the students 50 miles away when I can, but our scheduling and course syllabus is very strict and does not allow for much in the way of combining lessons and whatnot :(. Also, our FSDO has recently come down on our CFI's for doing cross country flights on lessons that are specified as locals. According to our POI we are in violation of the FAA approved TCO when doing that :rolleyes:
That seems very odd. Does the school that wants to be able to fly without the ELT operational (see 91.207)?
Does it really say this in your TCO?
The possible issue with XCs is that this very easily gets out of control with instructors that are in it for themselves and not really giving value to the student. Combining stuff and making it an XC is fine, but as an example, if you really stink at a maneuver and have to learn it, it's better to talk about it on the ground and then try another day, rather than think that later on it might be better. On the other hand, with two students, it might be a great way to get some XC time and be just as efficient in terms of maneuvers and such. With some instructors, this is not the case and I've seen students getting the short end of the stick. They didn't know any better at the time unfortunately. Maybe this is another reason why they "don't want to go there", but again, it just seems very odd.
There wasn't a CFI recently "racking up XC" time on every flight was there?
If this is truly from the FAA, why not call up the POI and ask for some clarification?
Going to different airports semi-frequently is one of the best things you can do for experience (of a student).