CFI guidance can sometimes be wrong. Either communication failed, or the CFI taught it wrong – but either way, it’s a mistake. As a result, amazing errors and weird techniques often get demonstrated in flight tests or during flight reviews. The “probable cause” in NTSB accident reports often reveals ingrained bad habits that were embedded personal SOPs. Pilots fly for years committing these errors because their initial training was flawed. The supporting explanation or justification provided by the pilot flying often begins with “but my CFI told me…”
There are two obvious pathways to these errors. The first cause is benign, resulting from faulty communication/transmission. Your CFI never really did say this, you just misunderstood it. This happens; even in an undistracted environment, human communication is only 25% efficient! The unfortunate result is that an erroneous or dangerous fact or technique was transmitted and accepted as “true or usable.” The antidote for CFIs is making absolutely certain your instruction is properly heard and replicated. Insist on consistent feedback/readback of facts and repeated demonstration of skills conveyed during training.
The antidote for every pilot (at every level) needs to be an “on guard attitude” for spurious information coming from every source and channel. The aviation world is full of “instant experts” with dubious experience and credentials. Exciting, sexy websites promote all kinds of crap online. Once we accept and code something as “true” in our brain, it become part of our daily operating system – like a virus. It is vital to check all your facts and verify every technique; your life depends on it. Firewall up and working.
Not all flight instruction is good. Not all flight instructors are sharing beneficial information. Not every flight school is acting in your best interest. Jamie Beckett
The second reason these non-standard techniques or weird “facts” get spread is from CFI with “personal techniques” they transmit as “valuable and true.” These CFIs obviously think they know better than the accepted FAA Handbooks and industry wisdom. They have developed (and are spreading) their own version of “safe and efficient flight” based on personal experiences (see the recent blog on luck reinforcing errors). This 
happens more often than you would like to believe. In the absence of reflective analysis, this is how humans learn and adapt. And when any group of aviators adopts an unsafe behavior it can easily get “normalized” as “acceptable” and safe. New trends in aviation are not always positive developments.
What both of these pathways point out is the vital importance of assuring accurate learning when you are teaching or learning. For the learner, there is a responsibility to verify the data and techniques you are presented – even from your CFI. After years of flying, every pilot has discovered some facts or techniques that were improper or needed adjustment, even from the most conscientious CFIs.
Then there are just bad CFIs. Sometimes these are the people who took the “instant expert” course and did not learn thoroughly. In other cases, unchecked “adaptation” leads to a downward spiral of shortcuts and noncompliance. (See The Rogue Pilot by Tony Kern for some scary examples)
Canadian CFIs are required to go through mandatory mentoring before teaching on their own; but not in the US. Out the door with a new FAA CFI temporary and you are an “expert!” And at every level there are short-cuts available for pilots looking for “faster, cheaper, easier.” Only personal integrity will prevent a learner (at every level) from cutting corners in flight training. Do you value your life and the lives of your family and friends? Learn well and thoroughly and pursue excellence in aviation; it can be terribly unforgiving. Join a positive safety culture and test your knowledge with reliable mentors and a solid base of resources. With the right attitude, you will learn something new every day. Fly safely out there (and often)!
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I have a set of standard questions about how airplanes fly that I give to CFI candidates as part of my spin training program. They contain questions like, “True or false: stall speed changes with bank angle,” and, “What MAKES an airplane stall?” It is amazing that nearly every CFI or CFI candidate gets the answers wrong. I would say that fewer than 10% answer the questions correctly. Interestingly, they either get them all right or all wrong, demonstrating that a basic misunderstanding of how an airplane flies generally exists in the CFI population. (Rich Stowell’s excellent program, “Learn to Turn,” addresses all these issues and presents correct information.)
As a result of this I wrote a series of articles called, “Killing Sacred Cows” for a type-specific aircraft magazine. They refused to publish my last article because they couldn’t believe I was right when so many other CFIs disagreed with me. What this says is that misunderstanding and misinformation is so rampant and deeply ingrained in the aviation community that even empirical data doesn’t overcome the misinformation.
We have our work cut out for us.
This is all so true. And the biggest myth of all – that power (at the most in a Skyhawk about a 500lb horizontal force) can control altitude, i.e. weight (a +2000lb vertical force).