Talented students: a flight instructor merely needs to point them in the right direction and get out of their way.
Alan Miller is Hawai'i's newest D.P.E., joining “Mac” Smith. There's always a bit of tension with a new D.P.E. What's he like? Is he tough? Fair?
The good news is: examiners are aviation enthusiasts, just like the rest of us. They know when a student is safe, and they know that any gaps in a student's knowledge are really the result of gaps in instruction.
After it was clear that Solomon passed, Alan thoroughly debriefed me on gaps in my curriculum, and was relatively silent as I drove him back to the airport terminal for his flight back to Honolulu. Then: “Solomon is different, isn't he?”
Congratulations, Solomon!