I can sympathize with Kurt. I think that when you go for your checkride, you should have all the maneuvers, the approaches, the landings, the various takeoff modes, all of it mastered! You are still inexperienced but you should have those skills mastered.
(This is part of why new PP have a lower accident rate than 300-400 hour PP. The new guys have just mastered the skills but not yet acquired the cocky know-it-all attitude that can kill. Y'all watch your attitude when you get to that danger range, y'hear? Fred told me that, while designing the Ercoupe, he greatly underestimated the importance of judgment when striving for safe flying. Y'all make sure you apply your brain to making good judgments while you go flying forever, y'hear?) If you do all your Ercoupe flying first, then transition at the end to the 3-control with a different instructor, then that new instructor will be the one signing you off to take the checkride. He's putting his instructor license on the line when he signs you off - too many checkride failures and he gets bounced. He must check out all your abilities and polish them. And, if he's an instructor worth having, he wants to be sure you are safe to be turned loose, unsupervised with innocent passengers. Kurt has it right. If you can, when you transition to 3-control rental plane(s), it could be good to stay with the same instructor if you can. (Though if you are going for Sport Pilot license and the local FBO doesn't have an LSA eligible 3-control plane, you might have to go to another place for the LSA 3-control transition, polish and checkride.) But, even if you do get more 3-control time than you want, I think you'll still be saving a bunch of money by doing most of your training and solo work in the Coupe, first. And, you might learn some extra good stuff in that extra lesson time, too. Ed
