Originally Posted by
WildSmurf
I’m currently a part-time flight instructor, but I do spend time looking to see how other universities train their students. I have come a cross the combined private and instrument training course. I got my hand on one of the Training Course Outlines (TCO) and am surprised to see that the students are made to shot LOC,ILS, VOR and the list continues before the student solos. The student then does his dual cross countries then is sent to a stage check to solo. After the solo the student then has to hold on fixes. I’m honesty just curious to see what anyone has to say about this, seems like the student is going to take a long time to get through. In my experience, some students find out they don’t want to be pilots after they solo or receive their private ticket. This along with the fact that many students stop flying due to money. There is a lot to learn in the FARS about VFR and IFR, seems like to much information to push on someone new. Sorry for the long post, but I am just interested to see if anyone has something to say.
WILD SMURF
I think a program like this might do more harm than good. I've had private pilot students who have spent a lot of time playing flight simulator, and it takes forever for me to get them to get their head out of the cockpit and start thinking VFR. I think introducing instrument flight too early in training can hurt their VFR skill development. A lot of the "time crunch" type programs that rush people through ratings don't seem like a good idea to me because they hurt skill development.