New Student Feeling Discouraged

[Doug]

Warning: a bit long.

I am a new student. At this point I have 3.2 hours total in the air.

On my first lesson things went well. I was not nervous at all, I got to take off, fly around a bit, and then of course the intructor did the landing for the most part...although I helped a bit, and was able to feel the controls.

Second lesson I did well with the taxi and takeoff, and then in normal flight I got very comfortable with making turns, etc... I felt really good after the second flight.

Third Lesson I ended up with a different instructor due to scheduling conflicts. This was a really bad lesson for me. We started to explore slow flight and stalls, and things went really bad. I felt like I had 0 control of the plane, and my brain was completely frozen. I also felt like the instructor had 0 confidence in me and was flying the plane completely. I was also nervous and a bit frightened for the first time.

After the third lesson I tried to shake things off, and attribute it to the fact that I did not mesh with the instructors style, and then things would be ok on todays lesson.

Well I had todays lesson with my normal instructor and am not feeling good, in fact I am feeling worse. I told him that I had problems my last lesson, and that I really needed to revisit all the slow flight manuevers. He understood. Today was much windier than I am used to, and flying in wind in a small C-152 I was a bit thrown off, and actually felt slightly quesy(sp?) at times.

Once we started slow flight, I found myself looking at instruments way too much and not doing well at all. At one point my instructor covered the instruments with the checklist and told me to pick a point(a cloud) and stay on it. This helped, but I still never felt confident. A major problem I am having is using the wrong rudder. In the beginning you are told to "step on the ball". Ball moves right, you use right rudder to push the ball back to the middle, and so on. Well often times when the plane is yawing to the right, I find myself using right rudder, to "push" the nose left...which of course is totally wrong and really screws me up.

Slow flight overall seems to be a total hang up for me. I just feel like there is too much to keep track of. Altitude, airspeed, Angle of attack, etc...
Add on the fact that it was very bumpy around 2500' and I was downright terrified at times(he did put us at 3000' for a lot of it, but wanted me to experience slow flight in turbulance too). Terrified not so much in a "crash and burn" sense, but more in a "I must be the worst pilot in the world, I am never going to get this" sense.

I just don't seem to "feel" the plane. I feel totally flustered, and half want to say flying is not for me. I feel really down, and wonder if I will ever get the hang of this, or if I am just to CS(something that lays eggs followed by a four letter swear word) to handle flying. I find myself way overthinking things, and just not going with the flow. This is completely the opposite of my first 2 lessons. The first two I was really easygoing, but the last two I have been deathgripping the yoke so much that my hands hurt.

Is this something people go through, or do I just suck? I really want to continue to push forward, and don't want to give up. But in a way I wonder if I am kidding myself, over-estimating my own intelligence and abilities, and flushing cash down the toilet.

 

[pilotyip]

to be expected

You will have good days and bad days. You are probably expecting too much of yourself too soon. It is a building process. Five lessons from now you will be finding difficulty with much more advanced maneuvers than you are now doing. And you will find the things you are strugging with today a piece of cake. If you ever master pylon eights you will be ahead of me.

 

[TonyC]

Is this something people go through, or do I just suck?

It's something people go through. It will take more lessons to determine the other part.

It should come as no surprise that doing something new and unnatural might be difficult or make you feel uneasy. It should come as no surprise that the best way to face the challenge is to attack it head on.

Make sure you're getting a full debrief after you fly. Ask questions about what you did, right or wrong, so you can better prepare for the next flight. Talking about something soon after it happened is much more effective than, "Remember on our last flight when you kept pushing the right rudder?" two or three days later.

Give your instructor feedback - - "Hey I appreciate you wanting me to get experience doing slowflight in turbulence, but for right now my stomach isn't handling it, and I don't think I was learning as much as I might have were I not wondering where I could empty my stomach." If the instructor is competent, he'll listen. If he doesn't, find another.

 

[Doug]

Thanks for the feedback.

I definitely feel comfortable with my main instructor, and I think he is good. In fact around 45 minutes in he asked me if I wanted to do more slow flight or just head back for the day( I think he sensed I was overwhelmed). I chose to head back. I think I need to communicate a little more with the instructor...he is not a mind reader.

I guess being that this is something new, I have no idea where to place my expectations. I guess I am falling prey to reading too many articles about how long it took people to solo, etc, and I am afraid of falling behind the curve. I know that people warn of putting too much stock in worrying about numbers, but it's just human nature. I should stop worrying about comparing myself to others, and just compare me to me, but it's hard. I am usually the person that is a natural at things, but with flying it is totally different. I really feel like I have to work hard at it. And I have been. I have been really hitting the books and learning everything about flying that I can...to the point of possibly overdoing it. My wife feels I need to step back a little bit and relax...and she may be right. Problem is everything I read talks about flying 3 times a week, and immersing yourself in aviation. I have an obsessive compulsive personality though, so what I call immersion, others may call insanity.

 

[jimpilot]

If flying was easy everyone would do it. It is very normal what you are going through. We see it in high end corporate pilots learning a new plane all the time. They feel they are behind because they aren't learning faster than anyone in their class and anyone who went before them and told them how quickly they learn the new jet . In fact you are showing a strong pilot trait, competeing with every pilot who has ever learned to fly.

It takes time, work and good old fashion stick-to-itness to get a pilot licence. But as I've always said, It sure beats working for a living.

 

[COEX-FO]

Warning: a bit long.

I am a new student. At this point I have 3.2 hours total in the air.

Is this something people go through, or do I just suck? I really want to continue to push forward, and don't want to give up. But in a way I wonder if I am kidding myself, over-estimating my own intelligence and abilities, and flushing cash down the toilet.

PERFECTLY NORMAL!

This happens to all pilots many times during their lifetime! I know pilots here at the airline with thousands of hours come out of a PC (checkride) with the comments, Boy did I suck!. It's just relative for them.

If flying is in your blood, then stick with it! If you are forcing it, well in that case you need to examine your personal goals. The good news is this will pass. The bad news is it will happen again sometime down the line in your career as a pilot. In both cases, it's part of the process of becoming a pilot!

Much success.

 

[Doug]

Thanks a lot to everyone for your encouragement. The embracing of those new aviation by longtime pilots just furthers my drive to become a pilot.

 

[Vik]

Its all really quite normal. Try and stick with the same instructor, schedule well in advance.

You were doing slow flight and stalls on the your THIRD flight? That sounds like your 2nd instructor is jumping the gun a little bit.

You probably aren't even making coordinated turns by your third flight and if you can't fly coordinated, how can you be doing slow flight and stalls?

From the sounds of things, your new instructor is clueless of your training to date and is just doing things without thinking. Stick with your old instructor and don't waste time doing stalls when you don't know how to stay coordinated while flying VFR.

You don't need the instruments to fly VFR. They should be covered up. I fly with people all the time that can't fly VFR and many are 400-500hr pilots with commercial certs.

Warning: a bit long.

I am a new student. At this point I have 3.2 hours total in the air.

On my first lesson things went well. I was not nervous at all, I got to take off, fly around a bit, and then of course the intructor did the landing for the most part...although I helped a bit, and was able to feel the controls.

Second lesson I did well with the taxi and takeoff, and then in normal flight I got very comfortable with making turns, etc... I felt really good after the second flight.

Third Lesson I ended up with a different instructor due to scheduling conflicts. This was a really bad lesson for me. We started to explore slow flight and stalls, and things went really bad. I felt like I had 0 control of the plane, and my brain was completely frozen. I also felt like the instructor had 0 confidence in me and was flying the plane completely. I was also nervous and a bit frightened for the first time.

After the third lesson I tried to shake things off, and attribute it to the fact that I did not mesh with the instructors style, and then things would be ok on todays lesson.

Well I had todays lesson with my normal instructor and am not feeling good, in fact I am feeling worse. I told him that I had problems my last lesson, and that I really needed to revisit all the slow flight manuevers. He understood. Today was much windier than I am used to, and flying in wind in a small C-152 I was a bit thrown off, and actually felt slightly quesy(sp?) at times.

Once we started slow flight, I found myself looking at instruments way too much and not doing well at all. At one point my instructor covered the instruments with the checklist and told me to pick a point(a cloud) and stay on it. This helped, but I still never felt confident. A major problem I am having is using the wrong rudder. In the beginning you are told to "step on the ball". Ball moves right, you use right rudder to push the ball back to the middle, and so on. Well often times when the plane is yawing to the right, I find myself using right rudder, to "push" the nose left...which of course is totally wrong and really screws me up.

Slow flight overall seems to be a total hang up for me. I just feel like there is too much to keep track of. Altitude, airspeed, Angle of attack, etc...
Add on the fact that it was very bumpy around 2500' and I was downright terrified at times(he did put us at 3000' for a lot of it, but wanted me to experience slow flight in turbulance too). Terrified not so much in a "crash and burn" sense, but more in a "I must be the worst pilot in the world, I am never going to get this" sense.

I just don't seem to "feel" the plane. I feel totally flustered, and half want to say flying is not for me. I feel really down, and wonder if I will ever get the hang of this, or if I am just to CS(something that lays eggs followed by a four letter swear word) to handle flying. I find myself way overthinking things, and just not going with the flow. This is completely the opposite of my first 2 lessons. The first two I was really easygoing, but the last two I have been deathgripping the yoke so much that my hands hurt.

Is this something people go through, or do I just suck? I really want to continue to push forward, and don't want to give up. But in a way I wonder if I am kidding myself, over-estimating my own intelligence and abilities, and flushing cash down the toilet.

 

[Goose Egg]

Problem is everything I read talks about flying 3 times a week, and immersing yourself in aviation. I have an obsessive compulsive personality though, so what I call immersion, others may call insanity.

I can't believe that I'm actually going to say this, but maybe it would be good for you at this point in your training to forget about the magazines. It's just between you and the airplane, and no magazine article can teach you that "feel" that you are looking for.

You are definitely experiencing some pressure to get this stuff down, but from where? Perhaps you should sit down and analyze what your motivations are for wanting to fly; it will help you indentify the cause of your stress. Is your wife the type of person that you can talk things through with? (I wouldn't marry any other kind) If so, she'd probably be a great person to include in the conversation. When I am at a time of crisis or decision making, I will find a secluded place (ends of runways are good, but not always quiet) and just write down every part of the issue on a legal pad. To see it on paper helps me make sense of it, and then I form a plan of action. Some of my life's major turning points have been documented on paper!

Feel free to PM me if you need any advice--I have had several students that have been in the same shoes.

-Goose

 

[Doug]

In response to Vik,

I did actually do really well the first two lessons, and was doing fine with coordinated flight. I was making very smooth coordinated flights.

It was on the 3rd lesson that things really fell apart.

Goose Egg

The pressure is coming from one person, and that is ME. Unfortunately I can be very hard on myself, and my worst critic. I talked to my wife about it(who is also my best friend ) and she really thinks I should slow down a bit. With the holidays and moving to a new house, I have been going nonstop...throw in flight lessons + work and I am totally maxed out. Not that she wants me to stop or anything, but she just thinks I should schedule my next lesson for late next week, and not try to push so hard. At this point I agree, and think my pushing is causing me to mentally break down during lessons.

See I probably should not have started flight lessons in the middle of a move as well as holidays(we hosted them all), including 1 at the old house before we moved out, and one at the new house right after we moved in...very stressful.

I have been wanting to take lessons ever since I was young, and been really chomping at the bit for them over the past two years. Something just snapped in me friday about two weeks ago, and the next day I scheduled a lesson...I did not exactly plan stuff out, so I may have took off a bit fast. My wife was certainly supportive of me "taking the ball and running with it" even during a move and holidays, but I think she has seen that it really took a toll, and suggests I slow down.

Right now here is my plan of action:

Take a step back, make sure I have my "ground school" stuff in order. Schedule a lesson for next week...probably on the weekend. Ask to have one lesson of just flying in normal flight, and doing things I know how to do and am comfortable doing in order to get my confidence back...like practicing coordinated turns. Then I will take the next lesson and really try to dive into slow flight, and stick with that till I feel comfortable with it.

Does that sound like a decent plan, or should I keep plodding ahead with slow flight?