Teacherjh wrote:


It might be ok for insurance purposes to land on a grass strip with the
instructor on board but that doesn't absolve the PIC from making sure that
what you are doing is safe.


What I was doing was certainly safe. The "closed to transients" in the
AF/D as to do more with wanting to keep the noise and/or traffic down.


If your CFI didn't know that it was closed for noise, she/he might not have
known had it been closed for safety-related reasons. This is exactly the
issue I've found myself having with "instructor in command" (nice label,
BTW!). Had you been flying on your own, would you land at an airport
(assuming no emergency) w/o checking that airport's information?

The problem, of course, is making the choice of when to "trust" the
instructor. Based upon what?

After all, a relatively low time pilot with a fear of stalls (discussed in
another thread) might have concluded that doing the "falling leaf" with a
CFI was unsafe. That choice would mean giving up a very useful learning
experience.

On the other hand, I recall a CFI early in my primary training that wanted
to go up into a snowstorm. Fortunately, the tower's "hints" that
conditions were IFR all over the place were enough to keep us on the
ground.

- Andrew