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Feature Article: Are You Ready?
In the real world
of life some things are done too soon. Getting married, having
children, picking fruit, and going into your own business are
typical examples. Applied to flight instruction, we often find
that students are pushed into solo or into the flight test before
they are ready. "Picked too green", is the saying. I
have picked several students for solo when they were ‘too
green’. Usually, I know and the student known when the right
time for solo happens. For the PTS flight test there are so many
imponderables that knowing just when to go for it is a crapshoot.
As possibly only one
of many instructors in several types of aircraft and many hours
of instruction, the one who signs the Application Form cannot
do more than review and check for proficiency. The examiner is
in much the same position, taking only a series of snap-shots
that show the performance skills and judgment skills required
of a pilot.
The student pilot
who is ‘picked too green’ has been exposed and perhaps
even learned the required skills for the moment. The retention
and carry through of these skills are degraded through lack of
practice so that the ability to stay out of trouble is also degraded.
The student, often ashamed to admit this lack of skill will find
reasons not to fly and reasons not to get instructor help. It
does not take very long for even an experienced pilot to revert
to ignorance, out of currency, and less than proficient. An accident
looking for a place to happen.
Allow yourself time
to grow up as a pilot. Feeling uncomfortable about something is
enough reason not to fly. Being scared of any or all aspects of
the flight real or imagined is a valid basis for cancellation.
The actual flying
is retained, it is the finer points of taxiing, communications,
configuration changes, emergency procedures, situational awareness,
and checklist use that fail first. In a way, we will all turn rotten to one degree
or another when we do not fly often enough. An instructor cannot
teach the new pilot everything needed, the examiner cannot test
everything, and there is no way you can live and fly long enough
to know all that needs to be known.
Last Modified December 9, ©2025 TAGE.COM
