Originally Posted by
aviator4hire
I'd love to attend CSIP training, but DANG, is it EXPENSIVE! The flight school that I worked for (now defunct, bankrupt, and hopefully will not come back) had us flying the SR 20s and 22s (we were not CSIPs) with Chinese students at the stick. We were having most of them solo around 40 hours or so because of a wide variety of problems they had. I'd much rather have students learn how to get the basic flight skills and their private pilot license in something that is a ton more docile than a Cirrus. For most beginning students, it is way too much aircraft for them to handle and way to unforgiving (think tail strikes on landings). I think a better plane for beginners to fly (and much more cheaper) would be a ol Cessna 172 or Piper Warrior. No fancy avionics, standard 6 pack, simple systems that most students should be able to handle without much trouble. After the students get their private pilot license, then step up to the Cirrus for instrument training or advanced training. That's just my .02 cents before the fall of the rest of the economny or whichever way it is heading!
If you want to get primary students sitting behind a nice glass panel to look outside and fly the airplane there is a very easy and cheap solution. I just tape a newspaper over the entire panel. Takes away the urge to play the video game and forces them to just fly the airplane. They can look inside if they really want to but there is nothing there but the comics.