Originally Posted by 52larry52

Tom, don't you mean takeoffs were the last thing, that was always my rule. I didn't want the student to sneak out by himself and take off (the easy part) by himself and not be able to land with out damaging the plane. So I wouldn't allow a student to do any takeoffs until he did his first landing. By then he had enough control of the plane that I could usually turn that session into a first solo, once he did a landing I would have him turn the plane right around (he could at that point fly it in the air and he just landed it) do a take off with coaching, fly the pattern and do another landing and bingo, he just soloed! The old "takeoffs are optional but landings are mandatory" thing.