Originally Posted by
AbortAbortAbort
I do think that doing the flight before the ground was a typical low time move by the CFI, he wanted to make sure that if you busted on the ground he had already gotten to fly with you.
Bingo... and sometimes the flight school owners are behind this policy... they care more about their planes flying than proper education of pilots.
Jarhead:
I would be careful about the looking for "older" CFI's thing. Yes there is much to be said about experience, but some of these guys are even worse the experience that prompted this thread. Some of tehse older guys will make you still call flight service to file flight plans because FltPlan.com is too new fangled... so you better dig up your old whizwheel e6b and your weight and balance sheets...
In addition to that, make sure these guys do more than just renew their ticket every two years... Aviation is constantly changing and some of these guys are dead set that the way they learned 30 years ago is the only way.