...if the instructor knows he's taking the student outside
the envelops (and is thus extra vigilant)...

I assume that we're both
hoping that the instructor is
fully vigilant for the entire flight.


Well, only sort of. I expect the instructor (absent other issues) to be paying
attention to how I am flying the plane, not so much to how the plane is being
flown. The distinction is subtle, but consider that if the instructor were
the pilot flying (and I were baggage) the instructor's attention would be fully
occupied by the instruments and the view outside the window. When I take over
that task, I expect the instructor to be trying to make me a better pilot, not
so much trying to make this flight a safer flight.

An instructor will let different amounts of deviation go uncorrected, depending
on the level of the student. A new student can't recover very well from an
unstable approach, but a more experienced pilot can probably salvage approaches
that he shouldn't have screwed up in the first place. If an experienced pilot
makes a less than perfect approach, the instructor may not think all that much
of it, assuming the pilot flying can (and will) recover. So, here the
instructor is assuming more skill on the part of the pilot, and the pilot is
assuming the instructor will catch his mistakes (after all, that's what he went
up with an instructor for).

In this case, pilot and instructor do not agree as to where the edge of the
envelope is, and problems ensue. You can have the opposite scenario, where an
instructor is constantly correcting or taking over for minor deviations, which
could even be a matter of style (coming in steeply or shallowly for example).
Here the instructor isn't letting the pilot flying have enough rope, in the
other example there is too much rope.

When I talk about "instructor in command", I include also the cases where the
instructor says, for example on a cross country training flight, "let's go
under the overcast" (rather than file IFR and go through it, or fly on top of
it). The pilot might not be comfortable doing what he considers scud running,
and the instructor might be completely comfortable with the conditions. The
instructor gives no thought to the pilot's envelope (or decides that he's there
to stretch it a bit), and the pilot flying figures that this is the instruction
he's paying for, and goes ahead under the overcast (which he never would have
done alone).

The instructor has no reason to believe this is a problem for the student, and
the student expects that since the conditions are within the instructor's
limits, he will learn something.

Jose








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