It's also worth noting that there are very few hours of instruction
between the time a student goes out to preflight and when he or she is
signed off to solo. What is being worried to death here is that brief
interval spanning maybe 10 or 15 hours of instruction, What then?
Suppose he was qualified to solo? Suppose he passed his exam and was
now a PP?

This is reminding me of gun control laws that are passed after a crime
is committed that never addresses the threat -- instead it makes
ownership more difficult for owners who are trying to stay legal.



On Mar 9, 1:51 pm, Shirl wrote:
"Deadstick" wrote:
In my opinion the FBO should NEVER dispatch keys to anyone other than
the PIC. If the student is flying dual with his CFI or flying solo,
then thpeople are e Student may be given the keys but only when a CFI is
confirwhmed to be present and supervising.

If you worked at a school or FBO, you'd see how/why it's done this way,
the student signing the dispatch sheet and being given the keys to go
preflight while the CFI is finishing up with the prior customer.

And "only when the CFI is confirmed to be present and supervising" would
be a huge grey area and subject to anyone's interpretation of "present
and supervising". If he/she is present at the FBO, does that count as
being "present"? or does he/she have to be "present" at the *airplane*
while the student is pre-flighting? What is "supervising"? If he/she is
looking out the window while the student pre-flights, is that
"supervising" or does he/she have to be standing 3-feet away to fulfill
the definition of "supervising"?

It's like the varying opinions of what "supervised solo" means.
Everyone's FIRST solo is "supervised" because the CFI is generally
standing somewhere close to the runway watching the whole thing. How
about the first time the unlicensed solo student leaves the airport and
flies out to the practice area? Aside from the pre-flight debrief, the
pre-flight and the takeoff, once the airplane is out of sight, how does
that fit the definition of "supervised"?

The ONLY reason this commonly used procedure of students pre-flighting
while their CFIs are finishing up with prior customers doesn't work is
because of the one in how-many who takes the keys and flies the airplane
into a house.