Private Pilot Flight Training and Instruction Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM The Student As A Student How much does it cost? Depends on motivation of student. How long does it take? 62 hours is average. My students may take longer but they know more and are better prepared for the flying world. Larger airports in metropolitan areas tend to take longer and cost more. Airport procedures can take 20% of the lesson time. Weather is an uncontrollable factor. The dedicated student will rearrange life style to give required mental and physical presence required to lesson preparation. The closer together the lessons the less slippage of learned material between lessons. Neither money nor time should become part of the problem. Get enough money available be fore starting. Four flights a week are ideal in the beginning until solo. After solo, one lesson a week coupled with two directed solo-flights works until beginning proficiency. Don't learn to fly in a situation where your needs are treated second to other priorities. Request and demand first preference for your lessons as scheduled. Make a fit with your instructor. If something about the instructor or training situation becomes an annoyance, change the instructor and situation as required. Total immersion is the best way to learn. Borrow and buy selectively of materials at your level. Don't start with jets. Get to the airport earl and get cockpit time. Read the aircraft papers and POH. Visit and talk with people on the airport. Ask questions about other planes. Carry a question card to keep track of things you plan to ask your instructor. Watch airplanes land. Visit the Tower. Becoming an efficient student requires some planning. An inappropriate instructor is the most likely reason you will have for quitting. Learning to fly is a shared responsibility. The instructor must give you things to do in preparation for the next lesson. You must come to a lesson prepared. Have the instructor outline the program you are expected to follow so you can study ahead. Frequent flights are best. Even a brief flight will contain a complete review of all aspects of flying. Fly safely and efficiently. Unplanned flying is not a practical use of time and money. Fly to satisfy yourself. Not all of every lesson will be to your satisfaction. Make note of aspects that are causing stress and discuss them with your instructor. The making of mistakes is an essential part of the learning program. The more self satisfied you are with what you are doing the more motivated and efficient will be your progress. You expect your instructor to be the product of a program that assures experience in flying and the teaching of flying. It helps if he has an additional commitment to instruction, personal maturity, and knowledge of what is to be learned by the student pilot. It takes great trauma to etch what you know at a given moment to be permanent in your memory. Memory is selective and built upon experience. You get out of a situation directly in proportion to what you bring into it. Skill retention is intellectual, procedural, and manual. If you do not fly regularly you will undergo a rapid and significant deterioration in flying skill and ability. You will not forget how to fly. You will lose those little touches of finesse and anticipation that only come with a continuous flight program. Even more quickly will you lose and be unaware of intellectual requirements. Pseudo-agnosia, again. Such pilots assume their demonstrated skills to be much higher than in reality. Such pilots believe that their desire will substitute for practice or training. It doesn't. Don't expect excellence in the beginning. You and the instructor are climbing a hill of worry together. The hill must be climbed a step at a time. If too much time occurs between lessons the hill turns to sand and each step begins to slip backwards. Even in the best of learning conditions the student may experience a plateau. This leveling of the learning curve is a normal and to be expected part of becoming a pilot. The student pilot should expect to experience one or all of the following plateaus: 1) Prior to solo; 2) Prior to solo cross-country, 3) Subsequent to taking the Practical Test. There may be others and it is unrealistic for a given student to expect never to have a plateau. The plateau breeds frustration. Quitting is a very real consideration. The rapid initial progress has slowed and possibly regressed. The first reaction is an undirected internal anger. The situation feeds on itself. If the student fails to communicate this anger or frustration to the instructor, it just gets worse. Learning to fly is a complex activity requiring both conscious and unconscious parts of our mind. It takes time for the mental areas to season and blend what we have learned. 95% study currency is required to balance the 5% physical aspects of flying if a student is to maintain progress. Often it is the best students who consider quitting. Never stop practicing your four basic skills and reviewing your knowledge. Any decrease in your performance skills will decrease your confidence. You are more likely to experience problems in later flying in direct proportion to the amount you ignore your previous experience. First things first, and the first thing is thinking about flying. Written by Gene Whitt Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM