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

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By Crash one
#1873312
Has anyone mentioned the “ground rush”?
This is the point when you feel or see from peripheral vision that the ground suddenly seems to be rushing upwards round your ears. In most light aircraft the view from the pilots seat is about where you see it when standing on the ground, plus or minus a couple of inches.
What about having someone pull the tail down while you sit looking at that picture?
All very well I know, so it’s down to the student’s perception of what the instructor “sees” from his experience. Not an easy thing to describe in words.
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1873333
Crash one wrote:Has anyone mentioned the “ground rush”?
This is the point when you feel or see from peripheral vision that the ground suddenly seems to be rushing upwards round your ears.

This means that you flared too high and are now plummeting to the ground :pirat:

Joking aside, I've never experienced this. I guess everyone perceives things differently.
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By tr7v8
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1873399
OK thanks for the comments, I cannot respond to them individually but yes read & understood.
Also thanks for the PM conversations I have had, they have been useful & assisted in clarifying my thoughts. So, here goes....
My head was in a better space today which helped.
And yet another entry for my logbook for today. Yesterday the weather in Medway was horrible, very windy & some fairly heavy rain on & off. Better day today although the fact it was a 10:00 lesson helped. Later on the forecast was deteriorating & they were cancelling some lessons for later. Still pretty windy but definitely off of 20. Did all normal approaches. Big crosswind & very bumpy especially on climb out. Base was interesting as the massive tailwind meant even less time to get set up before turning finals.
I was struggling to set the aircraft up on finals & at least two landings I was miles too high, one led to a go around. Speed control which has been an issue before seemed better, Climb out was a bit spiky but I think that was weather as much as anything.
Once landed put my cards on the table with the instructor as to what to do. I openly asked whether I am wasting my time & his. He had no real answer, but did agree with me that if anything I have gone backwards for the last few lessons. One of the options I suggested was a change of instructor, my FI agreed and my lesson on Friday will be with another FI. I did say to my FI that I have thought of quitting & another option of going elsewhere & starting afresh.
One this we discussed & I agree with and someone else alluded to is that maybe A. I have got to the point where I expect myself to fail. B. The pressure I am putting on myself is so great that is stressing me out.
After that I have another lesson on the following Tuesday then the aircraft goes offline at the end of the month for around 3 weeks for its annual.
0:55 for my logbook.
So now 46 lessons & 46 hours 10 mins in.
Next lesson next Friday
Last edited by tr7v8 on Wed Sep 29, 2021 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1873409
Ah ha! So...

You were better a few lessons ago so you can get back to that better :mrgreen: (ask me how I know)

And...

...After the wind today the next lesson will be EASY :thumleft:

Well done. I think you've slayed some demons today.
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1873473
Crash one wrote:Has anyone mentioned the “ground rush”?
This is the point when you feel or see from peripheral vision that the ground suddenly seems to be rushing upwards round your ears. In most light aircraft the view from the pilots seat is about where you see it when standing on the ground, plus or minus a couple of inches.
What about having someone pull the tail down while you sit looking at that picture?
All very well I know, so it’s down to the student’s perception of what the instructor “sees” from his experience. Not an easy thing to describe in words.


I think I may suffer from this a bit or just difficult to judge how high I am when close to the ground. I first experienced it when I did a parachute jump years ago. I was instructed to flare the chute at about 10 to 12 ft from the ground. I was on a radio link to the instructor who was guiding me down. As far as I was concerned, I was about 3ft from the ground when I flared. According to the instructor, I was about 20ft. Made for an interesting landing but nothing other than pride broken (and a new pair of undercrackers needed).

I’ve only done about a dozen landings so I can’t be sure if it’s just experience but I seem to get a similar sensation so find myself inadvertently pulling up as I come over the threshold. It was getting better last week when I did my first full lesson of circuits but something I had to constantly fight against.

I’m also unsure whether the fact that I am basically monocular that makes it more challenging to judge height as you hurtle towards the ground.
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By lobstaboy
#1873476
Milty wrote:I’ve only done about a dozen landings so I can’t be sure if it’s just experience but I seem to get a similar sensation so find myself inadvertently pulling up as I come over the threshold. It was getting better last week when I did my first full lesson of circuits but something I had to constantly fight against.

I’m also unsure whether the fact that I am basically monocular that makes it more challenging to judge height as you hurtle towards the ground.


The 'fear of the ground' you describe is quite usual at your stage. It'll go with practice.
Monocular vision won't be a handicap - you judge distances and changes to distance by motion in your field of view, not binocular vision (at least over the distances we're talking about here). I know one monocular vision pilot who has reached very high standards indeed in his specific field.
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1873479
@lobstaboy thank you. A very reassuring comment. Appreciated.
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By tr7v8
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1874482
Oh well, lesson with alternate FI was cancelled on Friday as A. the weather was marginal B. the aeroplane had a low voltage warning light and had gone to the menders.
I had lessons booked Monday with alternate instructor and Wednesday with my old instructor.
Well this PM I managed to come off my bike after a puncture. 5 hours later in A & E I have dislocated my rt shoulder and fractured a bone. So no flying lessons for at least 6 weeks.
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1874504
@tr7v8

So sorry to hear that. How frustrating for you. Hope it’s not too painful and you make a full recovery. A pause may be just what you need (but one without the injuries would have been much better).
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1874584
tr7v8 wrote:Well this PM I managed to come off my bike after a puncture. 5 hours later in A & E I have dislocated my rt shoulder and fractured a bone. So no flying lessons for at least 6 weeks.

:( Really sorry to hear this.

Was this a high speed puncture? Front wheel by any chance? As a bit of a roadie myself, it's always a worry.

Best of luck for a quick and full recovery. :thumleft:
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By tr7v8
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1874625
TopCat wrote:
tr7v8 wrote:Well this PM I managed to come off my bike after a puncture. 5 hours later in A & E I have dislocated my rt shoulder and fractured a bone. So no flying lessons for at least 6 weeks.

:( Really sorry to hear this.

Was this a high speed puncture? Front wheel by any chance? As a bit of a roadie myself, it's always a worry.

Best of luck for a quick and full recovery. :thumleft:

Nope walking pace, went to turn around as I realised I had a slow puncture. Front wheel shot out and I was on the ground. Landed on shoulder and right side. Knackered helmet so head hit the ground. hence why I have a stinking headache.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1874727
My double lesson today turned into 45 mins of sporty wrestling.

My (new) Instructor did an excellent briefing so I knew what we were going to concentrate on and we discussed techniques for seeing when to flare and transitioning from aiming point to landing.
TO was OK but almost immediately the gusts caught us and we bounced around a lot on climbout.

Now that I have something else to concentrate on (landing!) my TO, climbout, TOC and Downwind are all fine.

I managed to find the turning points much more naturally and coped with drift but I was a bit slow getting height off on Base and we were blown off wide for Final. My attempt at regaining centre line was rubbish due to wrestling with gusts and crosswind. We were all over the place :roll: I threw the towel in and voted for a go around at 300'.

Second circuit seemed less bumpy but probably I was used to it by then :shock:

Another good first half of circuit so some advice has sunk in and it is consistent, turning points felt right, base was a bit better but another poor attempt at flying the gusts on Final, although after me saying I was not stable on approach suddenly the wind dropped and we agreed I'd get a landing out of it.
Unfortunately just over the numbers we were really buffeted again and my instructor took it the last few feet. As we had plenty of runway he managed to extend the hold off so I could have a few more seconds seeing the correct landing attitude (which turns out to be as I'd identified a few lessons ago but at that time I had been told I was wrong :( )

We did one more but it was just too bouncy so I called it to land and we expedited vacate runway to let another instructor come in close on our heels.

So a very short lesson, 40mins, none of it pretty.

My instructor suggested we do a detailed walk round to cover much of the ac systems to 'make it worthwhile', bless him. So although I have read the POH and some of Pooleys 'Aircraft General' it was very informative, esp when we moved over to compare flaps, pitot, etc on the PA28 parked nearby.

Quick de-brief to end - my improved 'eyes out' meant Downwind was lots better, better trimming, the need to be more assertive in setting the correct attitude so it flies itself (a definite hangover from being worried about doing the wrong thing :oops: ), decent corrections for drift until very thermally Final.

I'd say it was good experience but I am disappointed not to have been able to do more. Just one of those days *sigh*
tbh I didn't feel like I had to concentrate so hard for most of the circuit so it must be coming together :)

A kind Forumite is taking me flying on Weds, wx permitting. Then we have the mini meet up and (hopefully) BBMF etc at Duxford on Saturday so it's going to be a good aviation week. I'm not complaining :mrgreen:
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1874733
Great. Sounds like progress to me. Not perfection, but progress which when learning, is great. Good to have a few wibbly wobbly ones.
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