Preparation
The success of the instructional program is directly related to the willingness of the student to study and prepare. It takes a minimum of two hours of study for every hour of flight. Trying to learn too much material too fast is wasteful of time and effort. However, it is important to survey all the material to get an overview of what must be covered and eventually learned. We will not purchase the FAA written test questions until after all the material is surveyed and then studied. You want the latest edition of the FAA test to study.
As a student of flying you will learn in several ways, flying is but one of them. You must talk to other pilots and ask questions. Visit ATC facilities and become acquainted with the people you talk to on the radio. It will make a difference in your desire to improve your radio procedures. Communicate with the instructor as to what you have read and heard. Even misinformation has value when it is perceived as wrong. The more you know the better you will be able to control and predict the occurrences of flying. The highest level of learning is making use of someone's prior experience.
The student or pilot having a flying problem will find that the best and safest solution is a specific lesson from an instructor directed toward the problem. However, more often than not, the student is unable to express or identify what the trouble may be. The unconscious realization that a difficulty exists that cannot be explained creates even more tension. The rapport between the student and instructor must be such that even the weirdest concerns are freely expressed. Often the cause of difficulty can be associated with lack of preparation, turbulence, absence of a horizon, low visibility, or student fatigue.
The intellectual/emotional overloading of a student is a very common and enervating event early in flight training. It can occur because of pressures from the instructor. More commonly it comes because of the student not being able to select the important from the unimportant. What has occurred at home, work, or on the way to the airport can affect the readiness of a student for a flight lesson. It is far better for either the student or instructor to cancel a lesson or at least cut it short if things are not going well or not expected to go well.
You are normally capable of driving an automobile through dense traffic while listening to the radio and carrying on a conversation. Preoccupation with one aspect of flying such as one instrument can create problems. Flying requires that attention be divided between inside and outside the cockpit. This attention must never be so concentrated that radio communications are not recognized. A part of the brain/attention effort must always be reserved for the radio. Hearing alone is not enough. That which is heard must be recognized/analyzed for its significance and appropriate action taken. Every communication has some significance to the pilot. A student's ability to discriminate between the important and unimportant spells the difference between safe and unsafe. The competent pilot has developed his flight skills to the same level used while safely driving a car. However, the student pilot is expending so much intellectual and emotional energy into actual flying that it is not unusual for the student to completely miss radio calls or even airports.
A given flight is more than an accumulation of planning facts. A flight is a multiplicity of decisions, options and choices. Safe flying requires judgment that extends beyond the facts and numbers of flying. A proficient pilot has a sense and feel for the aircraft and flight conditions. A proficient pilot is ready to admit insufficient knowledge, seek out experienced help and follow local advice. What you learn in the pilot's lounge is often more valuable than what is available from any other source.
Flight planning becomes a variable after liftoff. Your planning will undergo constant revision. To do otherwise is dangerous because winds are rarely as forecast. Weather forecasts are seldom on predictable time schedules and aircraft performance will vary. You are far better off to adjust the flight to the real time conditions as they occur. Being rigid in holding to your flight plan can be more dangerous than allowing flexibility based on safety options
Mistakes are a part of living. They are endemic to flying. Treat flying mistakes as learning opportunities. Early recognition of a mistake can prevent the progression of wrong choices to an accident.
Decisions, decisions, decisions
Even the best instruction will not suffice if the student does not show good judgment. The student must always be making a series of judgmental decisions at every phase of flight. These decisions are made, just as while driving constantly and instantaneously. This ability to judge is an intangible but essential part of living and flying safely. What can you do to apply good judgment to flying?
1. Learn by the highest application of knowledge. That is, learn from the experience of others. Read, listen, and ask questions. (Year 200 Fortune cookie: A wise man learns from his mistakes; A wiser man learns from the mistakes of others.
2. Fly with other pilots at every opportunity. What you learn not to do is just as important as learning what to do.
3. Gain your experience a little bit at a time. A few 100-mile flights are better than one across the country.
4. Keep studying, learning and flying. Long pauses in studying, learning and flying are quite wasteful of time and money.
5. Don't hurry a new aircraft checkout. Two flights are much better than one. Develop your own checklist.
About Questions
A friend was hauling a body from a remote location in Canada. Only a caretaker was around the strip. After considering the trees that lined the runway and the fact that it was getting dark and that deer could be a potential problem, he asked the old fellow about the deer. The ole fellow said" Naw! Don't have no deer problem." This made my friend relax. As he was climbing into the aircraft the ole fellow said" No deer but better watch out for the moose." My friend always says " Remember, If you don't ask the right questions how do you expect to get the right answers."
It's about judgment
In flying there are as many ways to gain skill and experience as there are pilots. Time alone is a very poor criteria. Once pilot may gain 100 hours of experience while another may gain twenty hours of experience five times.
It is not enough to have the requisite skill and judgment to perform a particular maneuver, you must also have confidence in your ability to perform it as well. Everyone has a particular confidence level in their abilities to perform certain tasks. Through repetition you do certain rather complex procedures without conscious thought, like driving to a nearby shopping center. We have very little concern in doing this yet; statistically we are more likely to have an accident close to home than while on a trip. Thus it is apparent that familiarity and frequency of exposure reduces anxiety and increases confidence.
I have only one known one person who claimed to have no sense of fear. He was supervisor of a ward for the criminally insane. He might, as well been one of the inmates. Our inbred sense of fear is a survival kit. We do not push our activity envelope beyond our comfort and confidence level. We prefer to test the edges of anxiety under guidance and instruction. The ideal is to gain exposure in relatively small adventures before testing the deeper water for ourselves. Thus, we have a reasonable personal limitation. It separates our comfort zone of experience and knowledge from the anxiety zone. Some flying students know the line between these regions better than others do. Survival is the name of the game.
Instructors set limits for student solo, often without explaining just why. Limitations are part of flying. The setting of personal limits is part of every flight we make for as long as we fly. The best pilots know their limits and abide by them. Hair-raising experiences are best left to those who need hair. (In-house joke.) Experience is just a process of expanding the range of your limits.
We will expand our limits for takeoff conditions, crosswind conditions, and every other aspect of our flying. As we grow in experience so will our limits until they become a coherent image of our own comfort and confidence zone. Still, there will be limits, when a pilot senses that the limits are approaching he had better reach into his bag of alternative options. The best of all choices although a most difficult one is to stay on the ground.
Never Light Three Cigarettes with one Match
This is a truism made famous during
When things do not seem right and you have a sense of uneasiness you should not take immediate action. Rather, you should spend a bit of time considering the situation. Few things in flying require immediate action. Seek an explanation that you can relax with. If you are still feeling uneasy, taking some action is next in line. The sense of apprehension that can develop is usually based upon our past experience. If this event is beyond our experience the best option may be to get on the ground.
When a pilot comes under stress mental errors tend to accumulate. It is important that every pilot develop a sensitivity to what can go wrong and the succession of wrong events that can follow. Once you have made your precautionary decision stick to it. Hopefulness always seems to run out of energy at the wrong time.
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