The pre-solo learner was having a difficult time staying ahead of the airplane. According to his CFI, at first the learner spent a lot of time heads down in the checklist when he should have been looking outside, such as when they were on downwind coming in for landing. He looked at the checklist but didn’t perform the tasks required, such as power reduction, deploying flaps, etc.
He developed a habit of coming in fast and yanking the power to idle and dumping the flaps in when the aircraft was on short final. This had happened more than once, with more than one CFI, who often found themselves yelling “My plane!” and grabbing the controls to avoid bending metal.
