Yes.
In one case, it was because his English as a second language tended to desert him in times like this of stress. In another case, it was because he could not be trusted to obey the rules if he thought nobody could see what he was doing or it was inconvenient. In another case, it was because he just couldn't get his hands, feet, and brain to work together well enough to control the plane adequately.
Two never came back. One went to the other flight school across the field and had the same problem.
When the FAA gives you that CFI ticket, they are trusting your judgment to not release for solo those who can't do it safely. It's just part of the job. That said, I was a lot more apprehensive about the first few I sent out solo than those I sent later on -- you do learn to trust your own judgment more and more as your you gain instructing experience.
I never sign one off until the outcome is never in doubt in my mind. Also the solo endorsement will have restrictions like day time, wind speed, viz, ceiling, etc. i did have one student one time that I could not get to a level that I tought he would be safe, I told him I was uncomfortable with his skills and variability to addressing new situations, I said it would be better that he find another instructor to determine if he could do better with someone else. If you start instructing this will become natural for you.
Well since we are 141 we are not allowed to have surprise solo flights. The students know weeks in advance what day they will "solo" since there is a solo lesson. Plus they are not allowed to solo until after they past a solo stage check.
So their whole family shows up and it becomes a event on its own. My first solo guy had his family fly down in their Citation. I had around 20-30 people watching him solo. I've seen mothers try to run after their kids when ever the plane slightly wiggles on landing.
I would point out that when you sign the 61.93(c)(2)(ii) endorsement in a Student Pilot's logbook, someone else has already signed for their skills to fly that make/model solo and to fly cross-country solo in that category of aircraft. All you are signing is "that the student's preflight planning and preparation is correct and that the student is prepared to make the flight safely under the known conditions." The FAA does not expect an instructor to actually fly with a Student Pilot before signing that flight planning endorsement, and I've signed plenty of them without having done more than review their planning and ask them some pertinent questions about the contemplated flight.
Ron, I understand that. I also make it a point to never sign off a student to do anything that I am not 100% confident in their ability to accomplish. Unless I have flown with that student how can I attest that "that the student's preflight planning and preparation is correct and that the student is prepared to make the flight safely under the known conditions." If I haven't flown with the student or if I don't have a first hand knowledge of the student's CFI and how demanding s/he is I'm not signing anything without a flight to see for myself.
You are certainly within your rights to take that position, but it is not required by any published interpretation of that regulation, not consistent with any FAA-stated expectations, and not consistent with what the vast majority of flight instructors actually do. Further, by your interpretation, unless you have actually flown that route with that Student under the conditions known to exist at that time, you couldn't sign that endorsement, and once you'd done that, the conditions would no longer exist for the subsequent solo flight.
I understand that, never the less, I feel that the way I chose to handle circumstances like this has saved my personal bacon on more than one occasion over the past 40+ years that I've been an active CFI.
Couple of years ago when a Student Pilot on his first solo XC ended up at Salisbury MD instead of Georgetown DE. I called his instructor, and with her concurrence, I signed off his new planning from Salisbury back to his home airport in the DC area.
Disregard, I found the answer in another thread...
FYI, I had my ATP and over 3000 hours before I got my CFI. It wasn't time building then and it isn't time building now. I instruct because I like to instruct. Oh, and by the way, I've got my own personal version of your map.
