Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

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By tr7v8
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1858880
MidlifeCrises wrote:
I've found that booking the exam in first (say, two weeks in advance) focuses the mind nicely on getting the revision done :lol:

Yes that is what I do. I then camp out in the cafe at the airfield, demolish some food & then have countless cups of tea whilst revising. Then its a 5 mins walk to the school building & I can sit the exam.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1858890
Re numbers - For a short time I had to use calculations as part of my job ( the bit that involved calibrating weighing equipment), and it's only when you try operating with numbers that you believe in the magic, isn't it? Having to calc using x squared to get a real value at the end!...
Don't think I could do it now though and I am no natural, it was always a wrestling match! Of course that also involved buoyancy and air density / temp corrections to Standard so at least I have an inkling about those when it matters.

Nav...... eek!
I can get lost going into the nearest town. Add in doing the maths while brain has gone to mush....It is not going to be easy :lol:

Thanks @MidlifeCrises .
Yep, totally agree. My Instructor is a demon :shock: If we can both last the course, and I'm no quitter, I will be better for his rigorous approach. There were a few lessons when I've wondered how on earth his style was going to get us anywhere..... then it does click and when it does come together he's as chuffed as I am.

I do owe a debt of gratitude to @TopCat for some invaluable analysis that helped me over my last mini crisis.

Exams.... yeeessss. I should be OK with most of them but it's a lot of stuff to embed and then pull out of the dark recesses. You are right about having a deadline to concentrate the mind! I'm working on Air Law because there's so much of it, and Human Factors, which I should be fine at. So I'll be booking them in the not too distant future :thumleft:
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By T6Harvard
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#1858891
tr7v8 wrote:
MidlifeCrises wrote:
I've found that booking the exam in first (say, two weeks in advance) focuses the mind nicely on getting the revision done :lol:

Yes that is what I do. I then camp out in the cafe at the airfield, demolish some food & then have countless cups of tea whilst revising. Then its a 5 mins walk to the school building & I can sit the exam.


Actually I've got an unusually (for me, travelling 90 mins) early lesson that would leave me free to revise and SIT AN EXAM afterwards, if an invigilator was available that afternoon. Good idea, I'll check with school :mrgreen:
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By 5murf
#1858949
I've just read through this entire thread, very interesting stuff!

My girlfriend got me a 1 hour flight experience voucher at Tatenhill which I will be booking very soon, I definitely plan to carry on training towards my PPL after
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1858964
Hey @5murf ! That's excellent. They are pretty busy atm because they are fitting in lots of folk who bought vouchers xmas 2019 onwards and haven't been able to redeem them yet. Make that booking but be warned it is addictive :mrgreen:

If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me.
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By tr7v8
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#1859311
Well yet another entry for my logbook for today. I think I'm going to get a rubber stamp for my logbook. Rochester was madly busy as it is 26ish Deg C today & the world & his wife was flying in/out/over!
So yet 7 more Landings & take offs and an hour, felt much better, aka it's finally coming together & getting closer to perfection.
The finals are getting better, the first two were good, then my FI threw in let's do a glide landing. That was the first I'd ever done didn't go too bad but the final flare wasn't so good.
Still frustrated again at my inability for this to click.
So now 31 lessons & 30 hours 45mins in.
Next lesson Tuesday! Also exam FP & P on Friday.
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By tr7v8
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#1859321
Wasn't too bumpy actually considering it was pretty hot. Rochester 02 has some big sink normally as you come over the M2 which was absent today as well.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1859327
If the wind's from the east we're on 08 and there's a big patch of forestry right on Final.....

So it's either bumpy circuits or a continuation of upset recovery :shock:
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1859822
I've gone backwards!
Lesson was pretty much pants. Only saving grace was....nope, nothing. This comes on the back of just one decent lesson out of all the circuits so it's more than a blip.
I've gone through the emotions from disappointment, a degree of anger, worry about my brain capacity, to plain old fed up, so I am having a re-think as to how to / whether I can move forward.
As a last ditch effort I've arranged a reality check, a different aviation experience, later this week.
Still hoping for the best and hanging on by my finger nails :?

Sorry for the vague moan. Am just going to lick my wounds for a day or two.
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By JAFO
#1859824
It will all turn out just fine. Most of us have been where you are, some of us still visit from time to time, but there are better, brighter sunlit uplands waiting for you and they're probably not as far away as you think.
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By Highland Park
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1859832
T6Harvard wrote:I've gone backwards!
Lesson was pretty much pants. Only saving grace was....nope, nothing. This comes on the back of just one decent lesson out of all the circuits so it's more than a blip.
I've gone through the emotions from disappointment, a degree of anger, worry about my brain capacity, to plain old fed up, so I am having a re-think as to how to / whether I can move forward.
As a last ditch effort I've arranged a reality check, a different aviation experience, later this week.
Still hoping for the best and hanging on by my finger nails :?

Sorry for the vague moan. Am just going to lick my wounds for a day or two.

The next time you fly will be another day. I vividly remember, when being taught to fly a Grob 103 Viking solo with the Air Cadets, that at one point I’d had such a shocking session with an instructor (awful flying, nothing went right), I swore I’d never get in a glider again. 2.5 hours later, after some lunch and time to myself I went solo. As @JAFO says, we’ve all been there. I certainly had several lessons during my PPL training like that. Take a breath and ask your instructor what they thought…

Hang in there…

Ian
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1859851
Kind and encouraging words, which I do appreciate, but the key is there, @Highland Park .... my instructor had no positives to offer this week.

I'm going to hold onto my plan for later this week and do some other aviation, then take it from there.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1859858
T6Harvard wrote:I've gone through the emotions from disappointment, a degree of anger, worry about my brain capacity, to plain old fed up


Right, you've reached the "I'm never going to get this" stage of despair which has been mentioned on here a few times.

While you're evaluating and seeing what's next, may I suggest what a few people have suggested here before - try another instructor. It's all very well your instructor striving for and expecting perfection in you, but that's not what you need right now.

But if you do choose to stick with the same instructor (for masochistic reasons?), the despair will eventually pass. Many people go through this stage.

In the meantime see if you can get a flight somewhere nice for lunch as a passenger, to remind you what the end game is and how great this flying lark really is.
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By tr7v8
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1859871
T6Harvard wrote:I've gone backwards!
Lesson was pretty much pants. Only saving grace was....nope, nothing. This comes on the back of just one decent lesson out of all the circuits so it's more than a blip.
I've gone through the emotions from disappointment, a degree of anger, worry about my brain capacity, to plain old fed up, so I am having a re-think as to how to / whether I can move forward.
As a last ditch effort I've arranged a reality check, a different aviation experience, later this week.
Still hoping for the best and hanging on by my finger nails :?

Sorry for the vague moan. Am just going to lick my wounds for a day or two.

I know the feeling, just about to leave home for lesson 31 & yet more B circuits. I go through the frustration with this, in that I just cannot get it right, nowt to do with instructor, just me!
I have now got to the point where this will NOT! beat me. I have 3 lessons this week so will see if I have the same resolve by late Saturday.
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