Now that we have some idea of what is situationally appropriate we can look at student performance. As an example, the aerotow of course makes more demands on pilots than free flight. The limits here follow what should be a common rule in setting them in any situation. The key lies with what can be judged to be the normal flying ability of the average licenced pilot. For instance, if slack develops in the rope during the aerotow, how far would the normal pilot have to be out of position before it would require more than ordinary skill (no sweat) to recover? This is the limit that should be applied to students. Instructors shouldn’t let them go to the point where they have to show your superior skill to recover from a situation. As instructors we should save this superior skill to give superior demonstrations of normal flying manoeuvres. A rope break during an aerotow under normal conditions is usually a sign that an instructor has let things go too far. Again, during the early phases of the aerotow our instruction patter is kept to a minimum.
Once off tow and down to about six hundred feet we enter a phase, during which instructors should have confidence in a student’s ability to pilot the aircraft with minimal interference. An instructor’s activity at this point should be concentrated in the areas of position, lookout, and to the lesson at hand. During this segment of flight instructors should have the confidence by now that they can simply direct the students flying at this altitude. In this region instructors should be able to correct of mistakes safely without too much direct intervention. If you take some time at this stage to observe how your student is flying you may be amazed at how quickly they are able to make accurate turns. If the yaw string is straight and the attitude is right, even in the early stages of training I let them fly down to the end of the base leg. The landing phase like that of the takeoff requires increased concentration and all of the same suggestions apply.
I have been reflecting on what should be common sense. Be conscious of the portions of the flight that require the most skill and are thus usually the most stressful. Pull in the limits at these periods and keep the stress down as much as possible.