"Peter R." wrote in message
oups.com...
It's worth noting that the student was NOT an instrument student. He
was still working on his private ticket.
If that is truly the case, then it would seem more probably that the
instructor were flying the approach from the left seat. I cannot
imagine any student pilot being able to, nor a primary instructor
allowing the student to fly an approach in actual low IFR conditions.

It's quite possible that the student flew a chunk of the approach and then
the instructor took over when it started to go a bit askew. When I was a
student I flew a vectored rejoin, established (sort of) on the localiser and
got down to about 600 feet with my instructor giving instructions all the
way ("left a couple of degrees, take off about 100rpm, ..."). Only when the
needles started to drift about did the instructor take over (and isn't it
annoying when you've been slaving for five minutes to keep them vaguely
right and the instant he takes over they hammer back to where they should be
and stay there ? :-)

Of course, the sign of a good instructor is that (a) he/she knows to take
over while all is not lost; and (b) he/she realises that if he/she takes
over a bit late, the direction to go in is up.

D.