Private Pilot Flight Training and Instruction Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM It's About Judgement 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 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. Written by Gene Whitt Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM