Jay Beckman wrote:
Mine made me shut down.

Excellent! Too often when I'm at an airport with my scanner (RHV or SQL
usually) I see a CFI hop out for a student's first solo while the prop is
turning. It makes me want to jump up, run over to the plane, and strangle
the CFI - and I'm really really not a violent person. It is so
irresponsible IMHO. I wonder how many of these prop strike pilots had a CFI
that hopped out while the engine was running. You cannot do things with a
student, and then tell them not to do it - you need to fly and behave like
you want the student to fly and behave (behave == decision making). One day
he'll be flying with his wife, fire up the engine, try taxi, realize he's
left the chocks on. What does he do?

When I solo a student, we taxi to a not busy spot, shutdown, chat about what
we had just done, what he/she should do, how it'll feel different without me
there, sign the papers, emphasize that go-arounds are good, and to go have
fun and fly the numbers. Then I hop out, and the student starts running the
checklist(s) from the engine start. Yes, it costs them an extra $5, but
let's put things into perspective here. [OK, now that I have that pet peeve
off my chest... ]

Hilton