Tom Fleischman wrote:
On 2005-05-27 15:58:31 -0400, "Neil Gould" said:

snip

Disregarding whether or not the instructor handled the situation
properly,
how many of you feel that getting experience in actual IMC during flight
instruction is a bad thing?

One of the best experiences that I had in my early training was exactly
this, and gave me the confidence to make good decisions if caught in IMC
inadvertently.


I do not think that getting experience in IMC during primary training is
necessarily a bad thing, in fact I think it is a good thing if done the
right way, but the instructor is really obligated to use some degree of
judgment. I think taking a primary student up into a benign stratus
cloud layer in stable conditions to show him or her what the effects of
spatial disorientation can be like is a very, very valuable lesson.
However, the conditions that prevailed in the area that day were not
suitable for this type of instruction, IMHO. The ceilings were very low,
the temp/dewpoint spread was nil, the winds were sporadically very gusty
and there were periods of heavy rain throughout the day. To take a
primary student up in conditions like that was incredibly stupid and
downright negligent and the parents should, and I predict will, win the
lawsuit.

And if they win they will likely put another flight school out of
business... Just what we need.

Matt