Originally Posted by
the King
That sounds well and good, but I have an issue with it. At many 141 schools, there is no provision for recurrent and refresher maneuvers practice other than the 12 month requirement. We used to have guys who got their CFI but had no commercial students for 3-6 months. It happened to me. How can you demo maneuvers you haven't practiced in a complex airplane when you fly every day to make ends meet. The school is responsible, but the instructor may have been caught in a system that kept him from being fresh.
Right on, and this is why I am not hard nosed about less than fabulous teaching skills of those instructors attempting to teach commercial students after untold months of not having such a student. All I ask is they know what they are supposed to be showing, even if they can't nail it due to lack of recent practice. So, if an instructor is using air time to reread the PTS then I think they should do that kind of thing at home. But if they are rusty due to lack of practice, then well maybe the student should try and realize that not many commercial students come by in a given year. I do not see any shame in the instructor being honest about this up front, either. I see check-level instructors where I work that do not really know what the PTS says on some of the maneuvers. My own commercial instructor was badly out of practice on the maneuvers and I suspect he actually had never had a commercial student before me. That's one thing, but to not mention this is a disservice to the student. Both parties need to realize the commercial certificate is a special in this way and make adjustments for it.