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Overcontrolling...

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mwwest2004

Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
Posts
20
Hello,

I recently began taking lessons to become a pilot down in South Louisiana (being instructed by Charlie Hammonds at HUM for those familiar with the area). Its going pretty well, and I love every minute of it. I am up to about 7 hours now and have been having trouble with keeping the airplane on course and level. I tend to over control, causing a lot of up and down and side to side movement as I try to correct to the proper heading or altitude. The problem became more noticeable when we began practicing approaches for landing today. I was just wondering if anyone has any tips as far as holding headings and altitudes and making corrections more smoothly (maybe something I can do between lessons).

Thank you for your help.
 
For me it was a matter of unlearning the kinds of control movements that need to be made in a car. In stead of flying by moving the yoke, I found my tendency to over control went away by making sure to apply consistent pressure and give the plane a moment to respond.
 
stick your elbow on the armrest, or wedge it between your body and the door. Gives you a good reference point for how much control input you've used, and encourages smaller movements with the wrist, hand, and fingers rather than controlling from the shoulder.
 
Hold,..don't grip,..hold the yoke lightly with the fingers. Lightly, but firmly, ..as you would a small child. Make gentle urging pressures, ..as you 'feel' the airplane's response...
 
Thanks for the responses...I'll see if I can keep those in mind during my next lesson on Monday...if anyone has any other tips on this matter, or flying/training in general, let m know...

Thanks.
 
Don't move the yoke, just add pressure. Airspeed will determine how much the yoke actually moves, but you'll probably find the airplane requires the same amount of pressure to do what you want, no matter what airspeed.
 
Good advice so far. I would just add that this is something that will definitely come to you with a little more practice, so don't let it frustrate you. We all went through this to one degree or another.

And another way of looking at things is to "let the airplane do the work." It's not as if the airplane will all of a sudden go into a nose-dive if you let go of the controls. It wants to stay in the air. All you need to do is make minor inputs to help it stay pointed in the right direction at the right altitude.

Good luck,
-Goose
 
This might be a little early for you (a pre solo student) but I would teach my primary students how to fly with just trim and rudder pressure. This teaches them to use the trim all the time and how little pressure it really takes to fly an aircraft.

What does your Instructor recommend?

Know that overcontrolling is normal for a student pilot and it will be less with experience. Just hang in there and think about what you are doing and always try to fly better with each lesson.
 
the airplane will fly itself.....you just make the adjustments to fine tune it.

like the others said, the best thing is to "feel" the yoke, dont death grip it.
 
It seems so frustrating and even tiring at first but with time it will come naturally. Don't give up I felt the exact same way.
 

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