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Feature Article: 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.
Last Modified February 13, ©2026 TAGE.COM
