More nervous than the student hahaha :)

[rumpletumbler]

lol....what a mess. Is it normal to be more nervous than the student? I must be having a confidence block or something. They don't know I am but I seem to be Mr. Adreneline Rush starting out teaching. Is this ok or should I jump off a tall building covered in macaroni and cheese?

 

[cougar6903]

Its normal. I was in your shoes about 5 months ago. During the first set of stalls with only the students hands on the yoke my legs were shakin' pretty well. After about 20-30 hours you'll loosen up. Thats what I was told by some fellow cfi's and its held true for me. Best of luck to you. Mark

 

[minitour]

I've heard it's normal and I hope so...I'm nervous already! (haven't even started CFI training)

That first solo endorsement has me ready to puke...but I'm sure I'll get over it.

One way I heard to get over it is take the student up real high...7-8k AGL and do some stalls...after he/she knows what they're doing...don't say anything, just let them make the mistakes like correcting with aileron instead of rudder...

...but then again, the ground school instructor might just be trying to f*ck with me...

-mini

 

[User546]

I had the same feelings and nervousness that you described. It goes away a lot quicker then you'd think.

The big thing is you just need time to build confidence in yourself. Once you got the confidence, the anxiety will start going away. I'd say that 20-30 hours should be about all you need.

And the scariest thing to me was stalls when I first started teaching. The way I way I saw it was altitude was my friend! But you'll never watch your students as closely as you do starting out!! I was unfortunate enough that the very first student I taught put us into a incipient spin on about his 5th stall! Him doing that actually broke my anxiety about them. I became confident in my ability to instantly take charge of the situation and safely get us out.

Just make sure you ALWAYS watch that base turn to final, and that upwind to crosswind turn!

I would however pay to see you go ahead and jump off that building with macaroni and cheese!

 

[User546]

Oh and something mini said.

I'm real close to giving my first-ever solo endoresement, and I thought I was going to be nervous as heck to do.

However just the opposite is true. I have such a great student, and he has done such a great job (for you that remember, he is the one that went out and bought the high performance airplane) that I have hardly any hesitation to sign him off.

If you've trained them right, and have the confidence in your decision making abilities, there shouldn't be much to worry about.

If on the other hand your very anxious and nervous to sign someone off to go solo - maybe you need to stop and give the guy a little more training!

 

[Fly_Chick]

I was nervous during my first CFI flight with a student pilot. My legs were shaking. My nervouseness went away after about 3 hours.

Do not worry about the solo endorsements. If you have trained the student well, you will be confident in signing him/her off. If you have any reservations at all, have another instructor fly with the student for a second opinion.

For each new solo ride, I always get a bit of nervousness, yet have come to realize that nervousness is really my excitement in that person about to accomplish a huge goal.

The same holds true for checkrides - I have learned that it is really my excitement in my student reaching a goal, not nervouseness on my part.

 

[350DRIVER]

I was nervous during my first CFI flight with a student pilot. My legs were shaking. My nervouseness went away after about 3 hours.

Whole lotta shaking goin on huh?!?!. Sorry, I just couldn't resist with the visual that was implanted into the brain.

On a more serious note, your student will only be as comfortable as you are so do your best to put your concerns and fears to rest prior to doing the stalls, spins, etc with them. It will take time but after a certain point you won't think twice about it.

good luck,

3 5 0

 

[flyer172r]

The night before my first student's checkride, I went to bed at midnight, fell asleep at 2 am, and woke up at 5. The longer her oral went on, the more jumpy I was. So yes, it's perfectly normal to be nervous. I'd take that as a sign that you care about your students, which is always good.

 

[Atccfi]

The nervousness definitely goes away. As a matter of fact enjoy this new nervousness and embrace it, because before too long you will be hit the "not another stall syndrome". This usually happens after you get confortable doing stalls and then you can't even fathom the thought of having to go through another one. This is not to be confused with the "turns around a point syndrome", so make sure you can differentiate between the two....

 

[JonJohn82]

I must confess, I've been teaching since last August. I'm about to get a new private, I'm nervous.