BoDEAN wrote:
What is the usual time block you dedicate for each student's flight?
We do 2 hr blocks. What I've found is the first 30-40 min is filled
with prebrief, preflight, fueling, pulling plane out, and by the time
the 2 hr block is over, only 1.2 - 1.4 is dedicated for flight

My school does 90 minute blocks and I think at least at the beginning this
is a good choice.
The preflight does not count, the student can be at the airport 15 minutes
before the scheduled time and do the dispatch and preflight alone without
the instructor. Also, fueling should be done by the line crew automatically
as soon as the plane returns from the previous flight, not when it is about
to be used again. Then prebrief maybe 10-20 minutes.

This leaves 0.8 to 1.2 hours of actual flying time which is quite enough for
a beginner. After one hour intensive work most people will become tired and
usually there is not much point in continuing. They won't learn anything but
make more and more mistakes and become frustruated.

Of course it also depends on how much experience the student has (take it
easy and short in the beginning), what manouvers are being practiced, is it
a scorching hot summer day with glaring sun or a nice, calm spring day.
And a long cross country certainly takes more than 90 minutes.

jue