* The very best defense is to follow the PTS, use published lesson plans such as
those by Knauf, and document every step of the way.


I 100% agree with that. I'm an instructor for an airline in the
simulators and out on the line. This is a huge issue that gets
discussed regularly. Quite often pilots will violate a clearance, get
fired, suspended or whatever. Then the union lawyers get involved,
the FAA gets involved and instructors jobs are then questioned as to
whether he/she was taught the correct procedure or not. Infact it is
not un-common for the FAA to come interview every instructor that
dealt with a particular pilot after a crash involves a fatality. I've
had dozens of friends interviewed by the FAA with this matter. And in
some cases, the instructor lost their license/ability to instruct or
had to go through specific extra training to remain in good standing
with the FAA. And in one case, the instructor was not giving evidence
that he taught the student correctly....and the FAA took away all his
ratings except for his private!

What we do at my airline to prevent the instructor from coming under
fire, is document, document, document. We follow an FAA approved
lesson plan for each simulator lesson, then at the end, make the
student sign agreeing that all lessons were complete. The student
also has a folder with notes for each day. I constantly write
references to notes that are page numbers to the operating manual or
far's.

I'm working on my CFI-G right now. Should be done this year. When I
take on a student, I'll be sure to follow Tom Knauf's lesson plans.
And if the lesson is incomplete or un-acceptable, we will do it again,
and document it. I also plan on taking detailed notes after each
flight to let the student know where they stand with their strengths
and weaknesses, and to cover my butt too.

I copy all documents & notes, for my airline pilot instructing and
store all this in a month's folder. I have a big box in the garage
for the past few years. I also copy the checklists per lesson, that
are intialed by me and the student to put in this box. I think by
going this far with this, I can instruct, and cover every base just
incase the FAA calls me up if a past student ended up in a bad fatal
accident.