question on student taxi practice

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATcox.net wrote in message
...
The time can't even be logged but it sure as hell can be billed for. I
think someone is just running up rental time here. I can't see where any
pilot whether they have 2 or 200 hours is going to gain anything taxiing
around the airport.

I'd find a new CFI ASAP.
snip

This would seem to be very profitable for the aircraft owner as the student
would likely be paying for Hobbs time but the owner's maintenance clock does
not start until airborne. Not much fuel burn either. As a student I was
often asked to taxi an aircraft to or from the shop or the fuel pump, but I
was never asked to pay for this time nor did I log it.

The cost for taxi time should be a concern for any student when they are
selecting a school as some have very visible locations that are close to the
road entry to the airport but require a long taxi to the runways. At many
large and often busy airports this is compounded by long waits in line at
the run-up bay and for takeoff clearance.

I did all my early training in a Citabria taildragger, and one of my
earliest lessons was all about the importance of correct taxing. We spent
the entire (short) lesson maneuvering on the taxiways and a controlled but
inactive and crosswind runway. We covered proper control positioning and
did several upwind and downwind turns including 360s and differential
braking. It was also my introduction to radio work and I know now that we
really did not need to make all the calls that we did. At the time I
thought it was a bit of a waste of money, but it was a good example of
presenting the material in small manageable chunks. During the second
lesson I had already developed some familiarity with the aircraft and we
could concentrate on takeoff and flying. Thinking back on it, I did log
this as dual training, and I did pay full Hobbs price for it but was not
charged any ground briefing time.

Happy landings,