I think I'll jump on the dogging you bandwagon as well, but just to prove a point. But first, I know guys that have FAILED IFS, so if somebody really sucks, maybe you should say something?I forgot about this last night. My chief FI, who has seen a lot more Air Force IFS guys go through the program than I have, told me that very few of them ever actually make it to the area solo (last flight in the syllabus) at 25 hours.
Left Eye Lewie: could you post or pm me a breakdown of what you did in those 8 hours. Something must have been done right.
2nd, I did my first solo X/C with 23.2 hours, I flew out of an EXTREMELY busy Class C airport, they too should be able to do the same.
I have almost a grand of dual given, I didn't look at them all, but my first 10 students all soloed with about 10 hours.
Though it's been FOREVER since I gave any of this any thought, I do remember breaking down the PPL into stages, first goal solo, 2nd goal solo X/C, 3rd goal checkride. We concentrated on those, meaning I know prior to soloing you have to demonstrated proficiency and be demonstrated several maneuvers. BLAH, I demo'd almost everything real quick, had them demo it, and then we concentrated on the dynamics of STALL RECOVERY so they didn't kill themselves on their solo, but then BOOM, it was back to the pattern to get them ready for their solo. I gave the pattern 60% of the flight everytime, and not waste time on them perfecting steep turns and all that jazz when they'll have ample prep time later. I told all my students with proper planning we CAN get this thing done in 40-43 hours. Saves them money, saves me time, and we did, *almost* every time.
BTW, I taught IFS too, for the AF, I never had one of them showup not pumped, most were outstanding students, but the only problem they had was some were a bit too cocky for the size of dork they were.