OP, you're doing fine.
The CFI definitely exhibited a few common "lazy" behaviors CFIs have to guard against.
You're going to be that student who's an engineer or Ops person who already deals with life-safety issues and has habits built, like checklists and procedures and only if they make sense to you. You'll want to know the "why" for everything the instructor says and every reg in the book.
You're a good challenge for any instructor and will be incompatible with some, quite frankly.
I know because I acted like you long long ago. Ha.
Advice:
Fly with a few instructors. You'll hit a personality type that matches. I agree with Brian, you'd be fun to teach.
Don't get too wrapped up in early impressions. Most instructors expect to ramp up a student from "wow this is fun and I'm completely overwhelmed even just sitting in this thing" to the conscientious decision maker who takes lots of detailed items into account.
You'll work backward. You'll take 200 details into account when today's lesson is simple "pull stick back, houses get smaller... Push stick forward houses get bigger" level.
Heh. If your initial instructor is anything like mine he'll just let you plow way ahead on theory and book learning way past Private minimum standards to keep that part of your brain occupied, while he beats mercilessly on your motor skills and connecting your appendages to your eyeballs and butt. And that'll be the hard part. They won't worry that you actually studied but they will find weird misconceptions in your knowledge that only happen when it's all from reading.
Relax but always bring up anything safety related. You did. You're ahead of the curve by about 1000% if you found a mag turned on during preflight. You also likely mildly embarrassed that instructor who wasn't expecting your personality type. Haha.
Remember that old guy may have some bad habits but he has survived a bunch... He has things in his head you won't learn in books. It took until my third or fourth instructor and later ratings to realize that... I hit a couple who could whack me upside the head with the concept that Dr Bruce says here, and I really only truly "got it" 20 years in after becoming a CFI ...
"Don't accept minimum standards."
I already thought I didn't but I learned I had a lot to learn. And always will.
Learning to deal with another pilot in the cockpit who has a low priority on procedure is just part of the lifelong experience. You should hear the stories from some of the pros out there...
I don't know any good instructors who TRULY mind you catching them in a mistake. But in the heat of the moment many will say the wrong thing in response. Bring it up on the debrief.
Intro flights probably should be, but too often aren't, formally structured as training. They're an unorganized mess at most schools. Don't read too much into them. Get to lesson two or three before worrying too much.
Fliwn with a bunch of instructors. There's only one I really go out of my way to avoid around here. Mostly because he can't make an accurate logbook entry to save his ass, and he's been teaching since the 70s. The rest all had big important lessons even if they were nonchalant about some things.
And there's things you don't know that you don't know... A FB memory of mine from over a decade ago came up yesterday where I had posted how "busy" I felt dealing with the gear in the pattern when I jumped back into a 182RG for the first time in a decade before that when I flew a Mooney. Ha. Nowadays the gear handle is a procedural must/imperative because I flew a crapload of retract time after that. Heh. Ohhh, I was soooooo busy and overloaded...
Yeah dummy... Because you were breaking a bad habit from deacdes of flying fixed gear that served you badly in the RG!
Guess how that instructor fixed it. "Back to your checklists, dumdum..." Okay he didn't call me dumb, he just patiently waited for me to return to what I was taught and valued... Then got sloppy...
Hopefully you've enjoyed my Ted Talk ... Ha.
Have fun. Relax. Go fly. I want to see your posts about crosswind landings as an overthinker... Hehehehe. They'll be epic. Until it clicks... You're going to be wondering aloud if you wore the right shoes...
Been there, done that!
