I’d just gotten hired at my first employer as a flight instructor. I was determined to be good at it–to teach safely, effectively, and to let the students fly the plane without excessive interference. I remembered instructors who were too handsy on the controls, making it difficult to get the feel. Was it him or the aircraft?
Se here I was with Milo on flight number 10 or so. He had done landings with his previous instructor but this was my first flight with him so I wrongly assumed that he had the basics of when to flare. As I would soon find out, he didn’t.
As best I can remember from 30 years ago, the approach was decent until the last 100 feet: he started getting low. “Power, more power!” Just before touching the grass I cobbed the power and pitched up slightly. We skimmed the grass and I recovered into a normal landing. Lesson learned. A powerful lesson at that and I never again let a student get that far out of bounds.