NYCPilot
Incorporated.
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2001
- Posts
- 645
Cougar-
The background of your student provides more information concerning his predicament. Soloing at 130 hours is a lot, but not if he’s taken a lot of breaks and has flown with different instructors over the course of time. Whenever you’re assigned a new instructor, they inevitably want to see what you can do and will usually prefer you to do things their way. In other words, relearning to adapt to the instructors preferences. It also takes time to adjust to a new instructor too. So a lot of hours are eaten up during this transitional phase. Especially when there are breaks due to his professional life. Learning at 40 doesn’t come as quickly as it does for a younger sponge-like mind. Personally, I wouldn’t give up on this guy yet. Since you are here seeking advice, I presume you still feel he has some hope. If you think that you’re personally making some strides continue with it. Its important that he knows where he stands in his training which, as you stated, he does. If he has the money to burn, and enjoys going out for lessons, keep it up. In terms of him not recalling procedures from one lesson to the next, that may either be psychological or biological. If he is somewhat a little apprehensive or scared, he won’t be learning or processing information in a normal way. Fear gets in the way of learning. Is he confident with his flying? There may be psychological reasons for his inability to perform maneuvers. Maybe he’s trying to stave off solo. If it were biological, maybe he has some sort of memory retention difficulty or is on some medications you may not be aware of. Then again, it just might be that he’s not cut out for being a pilot. It does sound like he isn’t seeing what the aircraft is doing. Maybe you could suggest one of those video courses to aid him, like the King series. I hear they are boring but they may get through to him. One word of advice, don’t be lenient on this guy. If he’s not safe don’t sign him off for solo or anything else that might jeopardize his life and quite possibly others. Flying, as fun as it is can be dangerous if not managed properly.
The background of your student provides more information concerning his predicament. Soloing at 130 hours is a lot, but not if he’s taken a lot of breaks and has flown with different instructors over the course of time. Whenever you’re assigned a new instructor, they inevitably want to see what you can do and will usually prefer you to do things their way. In other words, relearning to adapt to the instructors preferences. It also takes time to adjust to a new instructor too. So a lot of hours are eaten up during this transitional phase. Especially when there are breaks due to his professional life. Learning at 40 doesn’t come as quickly as it does for a younger sponge-like mind. Personally, I wouldn’t give up on this guy yet. Since you are here seeking advice, I presume you still feel he has some hope. If you think that you’re personally making some strides continue with it. Its important that he knows where he stands in his training which, as you stated, he does. If he has the money to burn, and enjoys going out for lessons, keep it up. In terms of him not recalling procedures from one lesson to the next, that may either be psychological or biological. If he is somewhat a little apprehensive or scared, he won’t be learning or processing information in a normal way. Fear gets in the way of learning. Is he confident with his flying? There may be psychological reasons for his inability to perform maneuvers. Maybe he’s trying to stave off solo. If it were biological, maybe he has some sort of memory retention difficulty or is on some medications you may not be aware of. Then again, it just might be that he’s not cut out for being a pilot. It does sound like he isn’t seeing what the aircraft is doing. Maybe you could suggest one of those video courses to aid him, like the King series. I hear they are boring but they may get through to him. One word of advice, don’t be lenient on this guy. If he’s not safe don’t sign him off for solo or anything else that might jeopardize his life and quite possibly others. Flying, as fun as it is can be dangerous if not managed properly.