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

Moderator: AndyR

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By StratoTramp
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1866887
TopCat wrote:...Just one word of caution... don't beat yourself up if for some reason it doesn't go quite as smoothly as minimum hours would require.

...So take it as it comes, and don't give yourself more pressure than the flying does.


Pretty good advice.

I'm getting a bit antsy as my solo keeps going back and back. Was looking good, then weather turned... So back a few days... Another opportunity... plane unserviceable... back a few days... More weather... repeat.

On the plus side I am getting a lot of cross wind landing practice, and advice on here that I'm too low. Going to be on NavEx before solo at this rate :lol:

But I think I just have to be chill, it will happen eventually.

One of the things I love about learning to fly is that often it doesn't feel like a 'lesson' - It is an experience :thumleft:
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By lobstaboy
#1866890
StratoTramp wrote:.... often it doesn't feel like a 'lesson' - It is an experience :thumleft:


Yeah. Instructors feel the same ;)

Just keep going and enjoy each individual flight. They are all good! The stars will align eventually.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1866901
lobstaboy wrote:
StratoTramp wrote:.... often it doesn't feel like a 'lesson' - It is an experience :thumleft:


Yeah. Instructors feel the same ;)

Just keep going and enjoy each individual flight. They are all good! The stars will align eventually.


@lobstaboy , for obvious reasons this made me laugh out loud.
Most of my lessons have been 'experiences' of one sort or another - me :lol: instructor :roll:

I enjoyed today. Will write up later on 'my' thread.

Keep at it @StratoTramp !
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By jcal
#1866931
StratoTramp wrote:One of the things I love about learning to fly is that often it doesn't feel like a 'lesson' - It is an experience :thumleft:

100% this! Besides I love learning stuff anyway, I know you keep learning long after you have the license, but the structure of the PPL training is great, and I'm really enjoying feeling like litte by little it's all coming together, even if it takes 70h to get there!
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By rb14
#1867863
jcal wrote:even if it takes 70h to get there!

I treated my recent IMC course in exactly this way; as I did with my PPL. And getting my IMC rating doesn't mean I feel I am a competent IMC pilot. All I really have is a license to fly in those conditions. I still have loads to practice and learn.

A pilot friend of mine, recalling a particularly bad IMC experience started his story with the following words that have never left me. "I was at 250 hours post-qualification. You know, that time when you think you know everything but realise you know nothing."
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By Rob P
#1867885
StratoTramp wrote: Going to be on NavEx before solo at this rate


There's nothing to stop you asking your instructor for a navex 'taster' whilst you are waiting.

The chances are he'll thank you for it.

Rob P
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By jcal
#1867947
rb14 wrote:that time when you think you know everything but realise you know nothing

Words to live by!

Lesson 9

Dark clouds and pretty low ceiling, but lesson was a go and it was a lot of fun! We're doing slow flight today and my CFI is more or less hands-off until we've left the circuit. Radio is also feeling a bit more like a natural thing, I couldn't catch the runway nr when getting airfield info so just asked them to repeat it and it was fine.

Doing the exercises getting into and out of slow flight was fine, but damn if slow flight doesn't feel awful! Anecdote, but I got my drivers license in Sweden and there you have to do a session of "winter training" which essentially means driving on a giant ice covered road and seeing how it feel losing control of the vehicle. This felt a lot like that!

Controls feel so slippery and even the tiniest loss of airspeed means stall, which today we avoided.

Hands were sweaty, but it was a lot of fun. :mrgreen:

Tomorrow we supposedly do actual stalls, I'm sligthly terrified, but also giddy with excitement!

I completely forgot to ask my instructor about the landing speeds, lots of other things going through my head so that one skipped me by, I'll try to ask again tomorrow. I did do the landing today and it actually was the best one yet, was very smooth on the tarmac, only thing I noticed was a slight balloon on the final flare. I did change my viewpoint as we got over the numbers to the far end of the runway which I'm certain helped!
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By VRB_20kt
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1867954
Set power, hold attitude and trim, trim, trim!! Yes it’s a bit uncomfortable and the controls are sloppy but the aircraft should be content to fly with only a light touch from you even at slow speeds.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1867979
A good lesson @jcal ! Slow flight is interesting and I re-did my lesson some way into circuits because I doubted myself but it went OK. It is very different to the first few lessons, but good for co-ordination, and for appreciating the different view with nose up during slow flight.

Stalls? You'll love it. I was a bit wary of the sensations after my instructor demo'd by chucking the nose at the ground like some sort of extreme rollercoaster. When I came to work through the many situations I loved it! Yes, it all goes mushy and a couple of the manoeuvres took ages to actually stall, but then you get control easily enough in the training situation and it is a great feeling. Somehow it is instinctive to check forward and then gently recover the attitude.

It came in handy a few lessons later when we encountered a pressure wave that threw the nose up, the stall warner sounded and the nose dropped. No panic, just recover :D
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1867984
I’m loving the student group threads. It shows that we’re all different and should embrace it. I did slow flight this week and found it quite easy to keep going with little changes to trim and throttle. But stalls were terrible. 2 decent ones out of I think 10 attempts. But it’s all part of learning.

I’m hoping to mix up some nav and circuit work on Friday with a short XC from Glos to Hapenny Green for circuits then back again. I quite like the idea of mixing it up a bit. Solid hours of intense manoeuvres and circuits I think may get tedious and good to have a mix.
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By leiafee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1867993
Slow flight is one of the first things I get rubbish at anc need to practise after a layoff of any length of time and one of the first things I do when changing aircraft types.

Being comfortably current at it (and at stall recovery) gives a lovely reassuring feel!
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By jcal
#1867995
@T6Harvard, your story sounds like a textbook example of good training! Learn a thing, spend some time not thinking about it, go back to revise, see you still have it, and then happen upon a real life situation to apply it :thumleft:.

Milty wrote:I did slow flight this week and found it quite easy to keep going with little changes to trim and throttle. But stalls were terrible. 2 decent ones out of I think 10 attempts.

Ah, we'll see how mine go tomorrow!

Milty wrote:I’m hoping to mix up some nav and circuit work on Friday with a short XC from Glos to Hapenny Green for circuits then back again.

Huh, how much are you usually flying per week if you don't mind me asking, going from slow flying to XC in less than 2 weeks sounds pretty intense! I'm expecting a few months yet before doing any XC.
By ChrisRowland
#1868005
If you can fly straight and level you can fly XC. XC is much more a matter of planning and management than handling skills. Don't see why it can't be taught in parallel to a handling skill such as stalling.
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1868027
jcal wrote:Huh, how much are you usually flying per week if you don't mind me asking, going from slow flying to XC in less than 2 weeks sounds pretty intense! I'm expecting a few months yet before doing any XC.


I’m 1 trial lesson and 3 others in. Take a look at my thread re new student Gloucester.

The XC is planned primarily because it’s cheaper and quieter to do circuits at Hapenny Green than it is at Gloucester. I’m sure my FI will have me doing slow flight, the odd stall etc on the way over and back. It will be an intro into what XC is like. As @ChrisRowland said, I don’t think XC will be that difficult with an FI sat next to me. Would I want to do it alone at this stage or with responsibility for exactly where we are - god no. But I think it will be interesting rather than intense and be great to experience flying to a different airfield… landing and paying landing fees elsewhere etc.

My target is to qualify in roughly 18 months. I have been booking roughly 1 lesson per week but missed 1 due to weather and 1 due to work. I don’t want to rush it due to time and money constraints but am aiming at worst to get in 1 lesson every 2 weeks or 3 weeks.

My FI has a reputation for pushing hard. The theory is that it’s better to throw a lot of stuff in at the start, then you can work on perfecting what you need to over time and relax a bit later on. I personally like this approach overall but it is quite intense and I was a bit cheesed off after my dodgy stalls last Friday. But it’s all progress. I think it’s good to mix up training with different experiences. We did a low flyover Defford grass strip on my second lesson with a strong crosswind whilst trying to track down the runway. It was great to try it and just makes learning more interesting rather than perfecting one thing at a time.
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