wrote in message
ups.com...
[...]
In other words, for what you're trying to get done, please the
professor first. Engage in the debate after you get your license. Odds
are that you'd have the same tough sell in front of you if you attempt
the same argument during your checkride. You can prove you're right
later.

Does that seem sensible?

That advice makes some sense for someone in Schiff's position. I don't
agree that it makes sense for a student who is actually hiring his
instructor to teach him something.

In this case, the student knows the answer, understands the answer, and is
confident in that knowledge. But what if something else comes up in which
the instructor is *also* mistaken, and in which the instructor refuses to
consider the possibility that he's wrong? If it turns out in that situation
that Nik either doesn't know for sure what the right answer is, or doesn't
even have reason to suspect the instructor is wrong, then Nik will be at a
disadvantage, being taught by an instructor who should not be instructing in
the first place.

I have had situations with instructors in which I was only to fly with the
instructor once, for the purpose of showing some competence in an airplane
or type of flight or something like that and in which the instructor said or
did something that I disagreed with (and most of the time, it turned out I
was right ). In those situations, you're right...you just go with the
flow, and let the instructor have his way (assuming it's not a safety of
flight issue, of course...I had to terminate an IPC prematurely, because of
an instructor who was so bad, he was interfering with the safety of the
flight).

But for someone with whom you expect to have an on-going relationship, even
if for a few lessons but especially for a primary student, it's important to
a) resolve every single issue to the point of truthful consensus, and b) to
know that you can trust your instructor to not tell you something is
absolutely true when in fact it's known to be absolutely false.

I don't know whether the flight in question was a one-time thing, or is part
of on-going instruction that Nik is taking from the instructor, but in
absence of that knowledge, I think it's important to make sure that no one
thinks it's okay to just let an instructor say wrong things, especially if
one is doing more than just the one flight with that instructor.

Pete