STRUGGLING

[April Evans]

I am currently in pilot school and am working towards getting my private. I FINALLY did my first solo a week ago after about 80 hrs!. My instructor and I flew a cross country and I had no idea of where I was. I am super confused with orientation. I am questioning if I have the aptitude for this. I do tend to overthink, so I know that I need to work on that. My instructor didn't say much, but with him, that says a lot. I am feeling overwhelmed with everything. Any suggestions?

 

[eman1200]

Simplify. Point A to point B. Where is point A in relation to point B? Let’s say it’s southwest. To get to point B you are going northeast. That’s mostly all there is to knowing where u are and where you’re going.

Well that and flying north up, if you’re using a gps.

 

[bflynn]

It's harder and easier for some people. Don't worry about the time. It's all hours spent in the air. If you didn't spend time with charts and maps when you were younger, this is harder stuff.

For cross country pilotage, the phrase that made sense to me was to "feel" your way across the map. Pick out good waypoints like cities, airports, rivers, major roads, and lakes. Bad waypoints are things like towers and grass strips. Now, take off and turn toward your destination. Start picking out your waypoints and judging how close are you to them. If I should be about halfway between the big city and the airport, am I? And because of where they are, where should the next waypoints be.

For my flight from KBUY to KEXX, I know from my pre flight planning that I'll fly roughly 245, adjusting for wind. Taking off, I'll be just on the left side of the lake and looking for the big drag strip about 7 miles ahead to the right and I should fly just to the left of that. Then I'll see Causey airport pointing right down the runway. Continue on course and I'll fly right over the threshold of another airport, but it is perpendicular to me and will be hard to spot. Instead I can see the lake with the dam just on my left and first highway.

So it isn't about orientation and remember to go north or south. It's all where's my waypoint and how does my route orient to it.

Before you take off, make sure you have ATC frequencies that you'll be near. Call, say student pilot on a cross country and disoriented.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Are your eyes 90% out the window and 10% inside?

GPS map orientation (North up vs track up) can throw me off if I’m not paying close attention. Use one and stick with it.

Better yet, don’t use GPS at all! Look outside. Use a paper sectional. Follow along. Pilotage and dead reckoning only.

 

[rhkennerly]

First, you need a heart-to-heart with your instructor. Get an assessment of whether he thinks you will ever get a license. And then, how much more it will take. At this point, he's just taking your money.

I'd also think about taking an evaluation flight with another instructor. Chemistry in the cockpit is important.

I think early exposure to orientation is key. (My wife was a farm girl. She just grew up relating maps to geography.--she also walks by my projects where I'm fumbling to find the right socket for the wrench, glance at the stud & nut, and say "⅜." She also uses body mechanics like a man, wedging her elbow into her hip to leverage up a bale of hay.)

Having said that, orientation is something that can be learned & practiced. It is not a uniquely male trait, but an exposure problem. I was working with an instructor from a big Florida flight school last February to do the ground portion of my BFR, and "lost procedures" came up. She commented That a lot of her students couldn't come up with, fly "east or west", hit the coast, & turn north or south. Or know if they were north or south of Jax or Miami, or Tampa on the west coast.

Humans are confused about directions & geography all the time. That's the reason about ½ an airplanes displays & instruments have to do with navigation. It is a learned skill, not an inborn talent.

the short of this is: are you getting benefit from flying, or has your lack of progress killed any joy? I just finished a lot of instruction after a very long break. Some of it was humiliating. All of it produced performance anxiety because, "dammit, I used to be able to do this." My flying & failures were being judged. Still, there was a deep joy in flying again, the feel of my hand on the controls. And a feeling of accomplishment at the end.

if there is no joy in this for you, perhaps it is time to rethink.

 

[Clip4]

How about we forget the solo and tackle the XC.

It is easy to become disoriented during the climb portion of the XC. When you plan your next XC select a top of climb check point. (TOC) This should be a very prominent object (a big lake or very tall towers work well) in the direction of your destination you can very easily see during the flight. Your planning is to climb to cruise altitude on a heading to your TOC, see your TOC and fly over the TOC to start the dead reckoning heading to your destination. Your TOC needs to be 10 to 15 miles from your departure airport. It does not have to be exactly on the true course line from your departure airport to the destination. Then from your TOC, draw the true course line to the destination.

From your TOC, pick very prominent objects as check points (CP) that are easy to see on the horizon when you are flying. These should be 5-8 miles a part. The goal is when you have reached the TOC, you see your first CP on the horizon and each subsequent CP the same way.

Use some pilotage. When you are planning the XC, many times there is a prominent road paralleling your true course to aid along the way. See if you can identify a road during your planning. Also use secondary check points in your planning to precisely know where your are. If you use a lake as the check point, are you supposed to be flying over the dam, a bridge, or some building on the lake. If you check point is a highway, you have to know precisely where you are crossing by using a road intersection.

During your planning, select a lower vs higher altitude. 2500-3500 agl is all you need.

During the flight, HOLD HEADING. If your are wondering around the sky, you will likely become lost. If you are 10°off course, you will be 1 mile off course every 6 miles you travel.. Seeing your next CP or flying to another object on the horizon and flying to it helps in holding headings.

Adjust your headings while flying so you are flying directly over each CP, then return to your compass heading.

Also pick really good VFR days. 10 sm visibility, low wind, low turb, and at least 5000 ceilings.

 

[Lndwarrior]

My first flight with a pax after getting my ticket - I got lost 30 miles from home. To be fair this was before GPS. The disturbing part was I had flown in the area many times. It happens.

I asked myself many times, "Am I too stupid to fly?". Years later, when I started IFR, I was convinced I was too stupid to learn that. Not making this up, either. Somehow I managed to get thru that as well.

I know I'm too stupid for a lot of things, but I guess flying isn't one of them.

Feeling completely over-whelmed comes with learning to fly. I think it is an important part of the process. It forces you to deal with problems and challenges. Someday this process may serve you well if the day ever comes when you need your "superior flying skills" (ie. the **** has hit the fan."

Keep moving forward even if somedays it feels like you are moving backward. You can do this.

 

[somorris]

Hi April. Welcome to the wonderful world of flying!

I know someone who loved to fly, but quit after he started flying solo. He was terrified of being lost, and his instructor was not good at teaching how to keep up with where you are. Sad.

Where are you taking lessons? Sometimes, surrounding terrain and landmarks can help a lot, but their absence (like over a desert, etc.) can make it really hard to keep up with your position.

I think, just from your post, that relaxing and focusing on the task at hand would help. Flying is not like most things we do, and being a little uptight and nervous is not unusual. Cut yourself some slack, and enjoy yourself. Try talking with other female flyers who may understand a little better than some of us who are not female.

You can do this! Never give up!

 

[April Evans]

Thank you so much for all of the advice! I wll definitely take it. I will take any i can get lol!

 

[April Evans]

Hi April. Welcome to the wonderful world of flying!

I know someone who loved to fly, but quit after he started flying solo. He was terrified of being lost, and his instructor was not good at teaching how to keep up with where you are. Sad.

Where are you taking lessons? Sometimes, surrounding terrain and landmarks can help a lot, but their absence (like over a desert, etc.) can make it really hard to keep up with your position.

I think, just from your post, that relaxing and focusing on the task at hand would help. Flying is not like most things we do, and being a little uptight and nervous is not unusual. Cut yourself some slack, and enjoy yourself. Try talking with other female flyers who may understand a little better than some of us who are not female.

You can do this! Never give up!

Thanks! We fly over a lot of flat fields with not many things that really stick out....Ohio. I know that I need to just chill and enjoy myself. I am going to reach out to the 99s which is a female pilot group. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Half Fast]

Try using satellite imagery (like Google Earth or ForeFlight’s aerial map) when planning your XC to help visualize the route. Seeing photo images of what a lake, town, highway, etc., look like from the air will help you identify them in flight.

 

[Half Fast]

Thanks! We fly over a lot of flat fields with not many things that really stick out....Ohio. I know that I need to just chill and enjoy myself. I am going to reach out to the 99s which is a female pilot group. Thanks for the encouragement.

Paging @SkyChaser . She became pretty adept at telling one flat field of wheat or snow from another during training. Maybe she can offer some advice.

Yeah, the 99s is one of those misandrist groups who prohibit membership on the basis of gender. Not very diverse or inclusive. But if you’re comfortable with that maybe you’ll connect up with some help there.

 

[Palmpilot]

(My wife was a farm girl. She just grew up relating maps to geography.--she also walks by my projects where I'm fumbling to find the right socket for the wrench, glance at the stud & nut, and say "⅜." She also uses body mechanics like a man, wedging her elbow into her hip to leverage up a bale of hay.)

Sounds like the ideal woman!

 

[Palmpilot]

My first flight with a pax after getting my ticket - I got lost 30 miles from home. To be fair this was before GPS. The disturbing part was I had flown in the area many times. It happens.

I asked myself many times, "Am I too stupid to fly?". Years later, when I started IFR, I was convinced I was too stupid to learn that. Not making this up, either. Somehow I managed to get thru that as well.

I know I'm too stupid for a lot of things, but I guess flying isn't one of them.

Feeling completely over-whelmed comes with learning to fly. I think it is an important part of the process. It forces you to deal with problems and challenges. Someday this process may serve you well if the day ever comes when you need your "superior flying skills" (ie. the **** has hit the fan."

Keep moving forward even if somedays it feels like you are moving backward. You can do this.

When I started learning to fly, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of stuff there was to learn. I dealt with this by telling myself that I only had to learn one thing at a time. It worked!

 

[Sierra_Hotel]

Try using satellite imagery (like Google Earth or ForeFlight’s aerial map) when planning your XC to help visualize the route. Seeing photo images of what a lake, town, highway, etc., look like from the air will help you identify them in flight.

This is the suggestion I was going to make, too. Pull up google maps, turn on the satellite imagery, and compare the area you're flying over with a sectional chart.

 

[dmspilot]

I am currently in pilot school and am working towards getting my private. I FINALLY did my first solo a week ago after about 80 hrs!. My instructor and I flew a cross country and I had no idea of where I was.

So you just did your first solo and immediately (well, a week later) went and did a cross-country? Did your instructor give you groundschool on cross-country flying first?

 

[Domenick]

In what state are you training and how often? I ask, because for some time while training in Western Washington State, even with the Pacific Ocean, Puget Sound, myriad large lakes, rivers, and the Cascade Mountains I experienced disorientation. Throw in trying to absorb all the new information and gain new skills and it is easily overwhelming.

I ask how often you are training, because the more frequently you train the more you will retain between lessons. During my training, I was working more than full time and could only schedule a single lesson a week. Here in the PNW, that means sometimes not flying for weeks because of inclement weather. It considerably extended my training time.

 

[April Evans]

So you just did your first solo and immediately (well, a week later) went and did a cross-country? Did your instructor give you groundschool on cross-country flying first?

There really isn't any ground training or VERY little. I can request it but if I go over it costs more. We just fly. I did a cross country before with my instructor but it was in February. It is supposed to be an excelerated course. Supposedly my Private, instrument, commercial and CFI in 7 months. Definitely not happening for me. I'm thinking more like 2 to 2 1/2 years

 

[April Evans]

This is the suggestion I was going to make, too. Pull up google maps, turn on the satellite imagery, and compare the area you're flying over with a sectional chart.

Thanks! I will try it.

 

[April Evans]

When I started learning to fly, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of stuff there was to learn. I dealt with this by telling myself that I only had to learn one thing at a time. It worked!

Thank you! Sounds like a good plan with all that there is to know.

 

[Jackk]

I am currently in pilot school and am working towards getting my private. I FINALLY did my first solo a week ago after about 80 hrs!. My instructor and I flew a cross country and I had no idea of where I was. I am super confused with orientation. I am questioning if I have the aptitude for this. I do tend to overthink, so I know that I need to work on that. My instructor didn't say much, but with him, that says a lot. I am feeling overwhelmed with everything. Any suggestions?

Maybe

The average time to solo for someone steadily training is around 15hrs.

Was this 80hrs spread out over a long time, with large gaps between flights, or were you training regularly?

Was this all with the same CFI? If you were training regularly, after 25hrs or so your CFI really should have had you fly with another CFI, or ideally a veteran instructor or the chief instructor for a fresh opinion.

If you flew regularly, like a couple times a week, and it wasn’t a issue with your CFI, I would say aviation might not be for you, which is OK, I’m really bad at golf.

 

[elvisAteMySandwich]

There really isn't any ground training or VERY little ... We just fly.

This right here might be the problem. This happened to me on my first attempt at flight training 25 years ago. No ground training, we just flew and burned through my money very quickly. Ended up with nothing to show for it, not even a solo.

Purchase one of the online ground schools. I purchased Sporty's, but there are a number of good ones. Go through all the lessons there and then when you get in the plane you will know exactly what you want out of the lesson and be able to ask questions of your CFI. The mistake I made years ago was thinking the CFI had a plan to teach me and help me get my cert. Maybe some do but some do not. My second time around, I had passed my written before even starting on flights and was telling the CFI what kinds of things I wanted to work on.

 

[MauleSkinner]

There really isn't any ground training or VERY little. I can request it but if I go over it costs more.

It probably costs less to have adequate ground training before you get in the airplane than to spend time droning around in an airplane not knowing what you’re supposed to do.

 

[TommyG]

There really isn't any ground training or VERY little. I can request it but if I go over it costs more. We just fly. I did a cross country before with my instructor but it was in February. It is supposed to be an excelerated course. Supposedly my Private, instrument, commercial and CFI in 7 months. Definitely not happening for me. I'm thinking more like 2 to 2 1/2 years

If you aren’t doing any ground training, you are gonna spend a lot more flying trying to understand what you read in a book. Your CFI should absolutely be covering things with before the flight, after the flight. If you are doing self study, you should be going in with a list of questions that you need better understanding with. Especially cross country! Be weary of the accelerated courses, they require a lot from you. My suggestion is step back slow down, and learn what you aren’t understanding with your CFI.

 

[dmspilot]

There really isn't any ground training or VERY little. I can request it but if I go over it costs more. We just fly. I did a cross country before with my instructor but it was in February. It is supposed to be an excelerated course. Supposedly my Private, instrument, commercial and CFI in 7 months. Definitely not happening for me. I'm thinking more like 2 to 2 1/2 years

Either your instructor sucks or is operating under directive from your school's management to minimize ground time and maximum flight time as a revenue generation strategy. Or both. You might want to take a break from flying and explore what other schools are available to you. Hopefully you didn't prepay your training.

Is it possible you suck as a student? Yeah, it's possible. Without proper instruction we would never know. But I can usually solo even bad students long before 80 hours. There are definitely a few that aren't cut out for flying though.

 

[TCABM]

… It is supposed to be an excelerated course. Supposedly my Private, instrument, commercial and CFI in 7 months. Definitely not happening for me...

You need to be learning full time and flying nearly everyday for that kind of timeline. There is no time for anything else. If you’re not able to commit to that kind of schedule, I would recommend a different program.

I hope you aren’t locked into this school/haven’t given them a large deposit. [/QUOTE]

 

[snglecoil]

You are at 80 hrs, just soloed…and this is supposed to be an accelerated course?!? Time for a new school/instructor. This one is taking you for a very expensive ride.

 

[AirHare]

April,
If I may ask, why did it take 80 hours to solo? Not a judgement; We have a student pilot in our flying club who came to us from a flight school and she was in a similar situation. Other than some self-confidence issues, she was perfectly capable of solo flight and has done well with the club CFIs. I personally had major lack-of-self-confidence issues when it came to my flight training.

As far as cross-country flights go, are you flying in areas you're familiar with on the ground? I would encourage that first if possible. One other trick: Google Earth (desktop version). Load it up and "fly" the route on there, with the sectional next to you. If you mess with the controls you can get to approximately the same altitude you'll be flying and can tilt the image for a forward view as if you were looking out the windows of your plane. Then when you get in the plane for the real flight, you've already "seen" this route before. I even had Google Earth snapshots of my VFR checkpoints printed out and marked on the sectional where they corresponded to. My CFI thought it was a good idea and didn't have a problem with me using it, especially on one of the x-ctys where he sent me over swamp with no real identifying features on the sectional.

If you're using paper sectionals (highly recommend initially), mark them up! Add things you clearly see on Google Earth to your sectional, even better if they're places you are familiar with. Schools and parks with large tracks/football/baseball fields are pretty easy to spot. Large shopping malls and highway interchanges can be helpful. Rivers can be useful if they're wide enough. At the very least, keep rivers in mind during emergencies -- they're easy to track and you know there won't be any transmission towers on them. If the cloud ceiling/visibility starts to get unfavorable, you can head to the river and know that flying 1000' AGL won't get you into trouble. I've found the sectional charts to be severely lacking detail in heavily-populated areas, but much better in rural areas.

I'll echo with the others -- the more time you spend on the ground studying, the less time you'll need in the air. Look up the channel Free Pilot Training on YouTube. Also take a look at fly8ma.com's free ground school course. They're both free, so all you have to lose is your time.

 

[Half Fast]

BTW - if you're not chair flying, you should be. Sit in a chair, close your eyes, and fly the XC in your mind. Make the motions with your hands, set radio frequencies and make calls, enter the destination pattern and land, etc. It's 100% free and it's effective. Rehearse it over and over.

 

[Half Fast]

When I was still working I had to fly on airlines for business quite frequently. I would pull up a VFR chart on ForeFlight, look out the window, get myself oriented, and practice my pilotage skills. Even if you're not taking commercial flights, you could still go up with a friend and let them do all the flying while you concentrate on following along on the map.

 

[April Evans]

April,
If I may ask, why did it take 80 hours to solo? Not a judgement; We have a student pilot in our flying club who came to us from a flight school and she was in a similar situation. Other than some self-confidence issues, she was perfectly capable of solo flight and has done well with the club CFIs. I personally had major lack-of-self-confidence issues when it came to my flight training.

As far as cross-country flights go, are you flying in areas you're familiar with on the ground? I would encourage that first if possible. One other trick: Google Earth (desktop version). Load it up and "fly" the route on there, with the sectional next to you. If you mess with the controls you can get to approximately the same altitude you'll be flying and can tilt the image for a forward view as if you were looking out the windows of your plane. Then when you get in the plane for the real flight, you've already "seen" this route before. I even had Google Earth snapshots of my VFR checkpoints printed out and marked on the sectional where they corresponded to. My CFI thought it was a good idea and didn't have a problem with me using it, especially on one of the x-ctys where he sent me over swamp with no real identifying features on the sectional.

If you're using paper sectionals (highly recommend initially), mark them up! Add things you clearly see on Google Earth to your sectional, even better if they're places you are familiar with. Schools and parks with large tracks/football/baseball fields are pretty easy to spot. Large shopping malls and highway interchanges can be helpful. Rivers can be useful if they're wide enough. At the very least, keep rivers in mind during emergencies -- they're easy to track and you know there won't be any transmission towers on them. If the cloud ceiling/visibility starts to get unfavorable, you can head to the river and know that flying 1000' AGL won't get you into trouble. I've found the sectional charts to be severely lacking detail in heavily-populated areas, but much better in rural areas.

I'll echo with the others -- the more time you spend on the ground studying, the less time you'll need in the air. Look up the channel Free Pilot Training on YouTube. Also take a look at fly8ma.com's free ground school course. They're both free, so all you have to lose is your time.

Thank you! I will definitely give this a try. I think that I am a slower learner and none of the CFI's are seasoned pilots. I've had 2 and the one i currently fly with has been flying a little under a year. He has a great personality and i think he genuinely tries but he just doesn't have the experience and definitely not any type of organizational skills. My first one definitely did not mesh well with my personality. She had been flying for close to 2 yrs. I think she is a good pilot but not a great instructor. I don't give up easily and don't plan to, but I definitely have doubts from time to time.

 

[Brad W]

half fast is right on... I agree. chair flying sounds crazy...embarrassing maybe, but I absolutely found it helpful.
I was learning back when cassette tapes were a thing. A coworker at the time lent me a set of cassette tapes that were basically an audio aid to learn radio calls. I can't even remember what they were like, but I used to listen to them on my commute and I remember finding it helpful too.... basically chair flying for radio calls.

 

[SkyChaser]

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer. Long story short?
1. Study the sectional of the area you're planning to fly (and other maps, if you want).
2. Pick checkpoints you won't be straining to see that you could possibly miss, even if it means finding a "cluster" to act as your checkpoint.
3. Don't be sloppy flying. You need to be on your heading and stay there, or you can easily wander off your course. You'll need to know nearby landmarks or be able to look at the sectional or a map that will have landmarks on it so you can find your way back if you really wander off or get disoriented.

@April Evans - are you flying with GPS as primary or paper sectionals as primary? I found that the act of doing all my preflight planning on a sectional really helped me understand what I was going to see and what I needed to look for. I trained in rural Iowa/Minnesota, and there was a distinct lack of good checkpoints. I usually flew by using a pilotage system I called "triangulation of points". I would pick two to three checkpoints in one area that would create a unique combination, such as a road that had a "ess" bend to it, with a railroad crossing the turn, and a tower on the other side of the line I wanted to fly. I would then fly through the point where the lines met in the middle. It wasn't an exact science, but I was flying VFR, so I could adjust if I was slightly off course when I was coming up to my next checkpoints. Studying the sectional to pick good checkpoints helped immensely, because I got a good sense of every town, tower, road, and railroad track along my route. I flew with paper as primary and GPS as back up, because I found it easier to navigate with the sectional. If I was ever in doubt as to where I was (which happened on my solo xc), I could say, "To the east is a railroad track crossing a road at an angle other than 90* and a meandering creek. To the west, there's a small town with a grain elevator and a two-lane highway running through with a funny bend right before the town. To the south is a lake and some windmills. To the north is a private strip with a bunch of hog barns near by. Now, which of those things do I see and where?" Once you locate yourself by finding those things, you have a good enough guess as to where you are that you can adjust back to the course you'd planned. Unless you have a better GPS than I did training, you can't do that with the GPS.

As for getting disoriented, know which headings you need to fly to get to where you're going, and which directions your airport and your destination airport are. If you have a rough idea of where those things should be, it's easier to find them when it seems like everything is just a big jumble. It will get easier as navigation becomes a more normal brain activity and as the flying itself requires less brain power. I was pretty disoriented at my first couple of lessons, and navigation was entirely up to my CFI. I was pretty worried I'd never be able to find my way through the sky, but after I knew roughly how to fly the plane and had studied the charts so I had a better idea of what I'd be looking at and for on the ground, it progressed from a challenge to a non-issue by the time I was doing solo xc work.

 

[Randomskylane]

CheckRidePrep also has free ground school but who needs free when the paid class is about one hr of flight time?

did you get syllabus from your cfi? Flight one is basic control, 2 is turns, 3 is stalls, etc. This way you can quickly see a discrepancy between plan and actual.

 

[AirHare]

+1 for chair flying. Also, if can, hop in the cockpit of your airplane and practice, even better. I hadn't flown in a month, and almost 6 months since my last cross country. 2 days before the flight I went out to the hangar in the evening, plugged the aircraft into ground power, turned everything on and "flew" the flight, from pre-flight to taxi, TO, climb, cruise, land. That practice made the cross country go absolutely smoothly and confidently.

Ask around the airport and see if you can hop on flights with other pilots, preferably pilots "with some gray hair". I'm a member of a flying club and most pilots are open to having a fellow pilot or student pilot tag along. That is a huge advantage of a flying club -- many experienced pilots to learn from. Even riding passively in the rear seat during another student's instruction can be beneficial as well.

 

[murphey]

Paging @SkyChaser . She became pretty adept at telling one flat field of wheat or snow from another during training. Maybe she can offer some advice.

Yeah, the 99s is one of those misandrist groups who prohibit membership on the basis of gender. Not very diverse or inclusive. But if you’re comfortable with that maybe you’ll connect up with some help there.

Wrong. There are no restrictions based on gender. I’d also posit that your attitude is why she should join a group that mentors women.

 

[April Evans]

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer. Long story short?
1. Study the sectional of the area you're planning to fly (and other maps, if you want).
2. Pick checkpoints you won't be straining to see that you could possibly miss, even if it means finding a "cluster" to act as your checkpoint.
3. Don't be sloppy flying. You need to be on your heading and stay there, or you can easily wander off your course. You'll need to know nearby landmarks or be able to look at the sectional or a map that will have landmarks on it so you can find your way back if you really wander off or get disoriented.

@April Evans - are you flying with GPS as primary or paper sectionals as primary? I found that the act of doing all my preflight planning on a sectional really helped me understand what I was going to see and what I needed to look for. I trained in rural Iowa/Minnesota, and there was a distinct lack of good checkpoints. I usually flew by using a pilotage system I called "triangulation of points". I would pick two to three checkpoints in one area that would create a unique combination, such as a road that had a "ess" bend to it, with a railroad crossing the turn, and a tower on the other side of the line I wanted to fly. I would then fly through the point where the lines met in the middle. It wasn't an exact science, but I was flying VFR, so I could adjust if I was slightly off course when I was coming up to my next checkpoints. Studying the sectional to pick good checkpoints helped immensely, because I got a good sense of every town, tower, road, and railroad track along my route. I flew with paper as primary and GPS as back up, because I found it easier to navigate with the sectional. If I was ever in doubt as to where I was (which happened on my solo xc), I could say, "To the east is a railroad track crossing a road at an angle other than 90* and a meandering creek. To the west, there's a small town with a grain elevator and a two-lane highway running through with a funny bend right before the town. To the south is a lake and some windmills. To the north is a private strip with a bunch of hog barns near by. Now, which of those things do I see and where?" Once you locate yourself by finding those things, you have a good enough guess as to where you are that you can adjust back to the course you'd planned. Unless you have a better GPS than I did training, you can't do that with the GPS.

As for getting disoriented, know which headings you need to fly to get to where you're going, and which directions your airport and your destination airport are. If you have a rough idea of where those things should be, it's easier to find them when it seems like everything is just a big jumble. It will get easier as navigation becomes a more normal brain activity and as the flying itself requires less brain power. I was pretty disoriented at my first couple of lessons, and navigation was entirely up to my CFI. I was pretty worried I'd never be able to find my way through the sky, but after I knew roughly how to fly the plane and had studied the charts so I had a better idea of what I'd be looking at and for on the ground, it progressed from a challenge to a non-issue by the time I was doing solo xc work.

Thank you! I will definitely take a much closer look at the sectional.

 

[Half Fast]

Wrong. There are no restrictions based on gender. I’d also posit that your attitude is why she should join a group that mentors women.

Wrong.

From their own website:
As a licensed woman pilot (current or not), you are invited to become a part of our legacy as the first international organization of women pilots. The Ninety-Nines are a positive force in the aviation community and you are invited to partake in all that we can offer.
https://www.ninety-nines.org/interested-in-joining.htm

The membership application is here: https://www.ninety-nines.org/userfiles/file/MembershipApplicationRevised06102021.pdf The two classes of membership are both exclusively for women.

Perhaps your attitude, or at least your perception of reality, needs a little adjustment.

 

[RyanB]

Wrong. There are no restrictions based on gender. I’d also posit that your attitude is why she should join a group that mentors women.

He is correct. The ninety-nines are a group solely comprised of women and membership is reserved exclusively for women. Some of their members had a meeting here at FGU a couple weeks ago.

 

[SkyDog58]

For all of the downtrodden men on here who can’t find an aviation organization that actually allows men to join, may I suggest:

https://www.ninety-nines.org/friends-of-99s.htm

Or if you don’t want to support women in their aviation endeavors, you could always hope that the QBs ask you to join. You might find that their misogynistic values align with your own.