Private Pilot Flight Training and Instruction Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM 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. Written by Gene Whitt Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM