How long should a lesson be?

[pgcfii2002]

Mine were all about 3 hours.
.5 ground
.5 preflight
1.0-1.5 flight
.5 postflight ground

Trick is to keep the lesson short enough so the student does not get tired.

 

[aviator1978]

I think it's best to keep the flight time under 1.5 hours for initial private pilot students. I made the mistake with one of my first students who could only fly on the weekends. He wanted to do 2 lessons per day, with each lesson being 2-3 hours. I remember on the second day, demonstrating stalls to him, looking over and seeing him green. Remember that while 2 hours in a plane in nothing to a CFI, it can be alot for the early student.

As far as ground instruction is concerned, I tell my students up front that we will be doing it and to factor that in to the cost of their license.

For me, the students attitude toward ground really determined what and when they got charged. I had one guy that was constantly whining about costs; however, he would call me with questions, would interupt me with other students, and then would tell me that the .5 additional was outragous. Guess what, he always got charged. Other students that I had who were polite got away with more free ground than they ever paid for. Students reading this, keep it in mind.

 

[taloft]

Your lesson might be too long when...

- Someone starts comparing clouds to Barney the Dinosaur

- After 20 minutes of spin training, the instructor says "I don't feel so good"

- You hear " I thought YOU brought the port-o-potty"

- You hear "Wait until you see this!"

- You say, "Yeah, but can you do it inverted?" while making the crossing inverted motion with your hands

- You start telling bad jokes and everyone thinks they're incredibly funny

- You say, "We'll work on that next time"

- You hear, "Hey, where did the ground go?"