The other day I was wondering what a novice should be tought before being awarded his wings. A member of the club I fly at received four or five sessions with an instructor before soloing and being awarded his wings. On the following two weekends he managed to smash three airplanes beyond repair.

Did this novice receive the amount of training necessary? His particular instructor was only focused on takeoff and landing procedures. Get him soloed as fast as possible. But basic skills like stall or spin recovery were skipped. It seems like there are instructors out there that teach students just enough to be dangerous.

So, what does your club do? I believe there should be list of skills, other than takeoff and landing, that the student should be trained and checked off on before being turned loose on his own.

My instructor would not have taught me some things. I had to ask him to show me a spin and what to do to recover. Then I practiced it a few times.

Anyway, what basic skills do you folks think are necessary before a novice is awarded his wings? Maybe if we come up with a list then the next novice reading this board can print this list, take it to his instructor and say: "Teach me these."