Bad Day as a Student Pilot

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JP6

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JP6
I never really post anything but I needed to get this out. I am 25 hours into my PPL training and had my second bad day. Unfortunately, my second bad day was during my Stage 1 check and I was flying with a different instructor for the first time. I've been trying to schedule my Stage 1 evaluation for 4 weeks now but weather, schedules, etc. have prevented me from getting it done. It was actually good because I wanted to crisp up my maneuvers prior to flying with someone new and being evaluated.

I've practiced maneuvers twice over the past 3 weeks and things were really coming together. I had gained more confidence and was much more comfortable setting everything up and executing. I finally even started having good un-assisted landings so I'm endorsed to solo but haven't been able to do so because of weather. Some of the self-doubt was starting to fade and I was feeling like I could actually do this. For reference I'm pursuing flight training as a hobby.

Today was my Stage 1 evaluation and I must have left my brain at home. From my rather shaky crosswind takeoff to my go around on the crosswind landing (instructor took over after go around) I just felt as if I was in a complete brain fog. It took me far to long to remember the call when exiting the pattern to the practice area. I'm actually pretty comfortable with Comms. normally, I have no clue what happened. I have previously demonstrated I know the procedures, I know how to execute the maneuvers and can do them, but I have no idea what happened today. It was like my brain and my hands were on different planets. It was a high wind day but If I'm honest with myself, I've gotten decent a fighting through it and turbulence doesn't really bother me so that really wasn't a factor. I just could not execute on things I've executed on with ease in the past. The instructor pulled the power and I completely forgot the ABC's. I started talking about Aviate, Navigate, Communicate (what an idiot),I then proceeded to pick a terrible place to land. The instructor said "Do you think you have enough glide to make it" Me in my head: Obviously not and oh look at those trees in the way! No clue what I was even thinking there were way better spots to land. Not to mention my best glide is 76 kts, I'm at 90 kts and for some reason think I should nose down a bit to reduce airspeed. I catch myself doing it and correct but at this point I'm fed up with myself. It was just poor ADM all around.

I couldn't hit a heading in slow flight to save my life. Turn a 333 heading, Me: turns to 320 or 316 every time. Nosed down too much on my power on stall after the stall. I know not to do that. It wasn't a smooth set up either. My instructor said my S turns were within standard and good but I felt like a drunk wale trying to preform them. They definitely were not good. Complete brain fog on my crosswind landing. Left aileron, right rudder; no dummy the wind is coming from the other direction its the opposite and by the way do you even know where centerline is. If I was sitting right seat watching my own performance I would have thought I was drunk or asleep. I had to text my normal instructor to apologize as my performance today was definitely not representative of the progress we've made so far.

Ultimately, I didn't make any life threatening mistakes and this failure will be a good learning tool. However, I am having trouble shaking off the disappointment in myself and definitely feel like an embarrassment to myself and my normal instructor. I am wondering if anyone else has ever had a day like this?
 
Welcome to being human. Sounds like pretty normal stuff with only 25hrs under your belt. It happens.
 
eman1200 said:
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The captains uniform really makes it extra embarrassing.

Daleandee said:
Nah! Here's a bad day ...

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LOL. The top comments on that video are priceless: "I've never seen someone some calmly and level headedly do exactly the wrong thing."

JP6 said:
I never really post anything but I needed to get this out. I am 25 hours into my PPL training and had my second bad day. Unfortunately, my second bad day was during my Stage 1 check and I was flying with a different instructor for the first time. I've been trying to schedule my Stage 1 evaluation for 4 weeks now but weather, schedules, etc. have prevented me from getting it done. It was actually good because I wanted to crisp up my maneuvers prior to flying with someone new and being evaluated.

I've practiced maneuvers twice over the past 3 weeks and things were really coming together. I had gained more confidence and was much more comfortable setting everything up and executing. I finally even started having good un-assisted landings so I'm endorsed to solo but haven't been able to do so because of weather. Some of the self-doubt was starting to fade and I was feeling like I could actually do this. For reference I'm pursuing flight training as a hobby.

Today was my Stage 1 evaluation and I must have left my brain at home. From my rather shaky crosswind takeoff to my go around on the crosswind landing (instructor took over after go around) I just felt as if I was in a complete brain fog. It took me far to long to remember the call when exiting the pattern to the practice area. I'm actually pretty comfortable with Comms. normally, I have no clue what happened. I have previously demonstrated I know the procedures, I know how to execute the maneuvers and can do them, but I have no idea what happened today. It was like my brain and my hands were on different planets. It was a high wind day but If I'm honest with myself, I've gotten decent a fighting through it and turbulence doesn't really bother me so that really wasn't a factor. I just could not execute on things I've executed on with ease in the past. The instructor pulled the power and I completely forgot the ABC's. I started talking about Aviate, Navigate, Communicate (what an idiot),I then proceeded to pick a terrible place to land. The instructor said "Do you think you have enough glide to make it" Me in my head: Obviously not and oh look at those trees in the way! No clue what I was even thinking there were way better spots to land. Not to mention my best glide is 76 kts, I'm at 90 kts and for some reason think I should nose down a bit to reduce airspeed. I catch myself doing it and correct but at this point I'm fed up with myself. It was just poor ADM all around.

I couldn't hit a heading in slow flight to save my life. Turn a 333 heading, Me: turns to 320 or 316 every time. Nosed down too much on my power on stall after the stall. I know not to do that. It wasn't a smooth set up either. My instructor said my S turns were within standard and good but I felt like a drunk wale trying to preform them. They definitely were not good. Complete brain fog on my crosswind landing. Left aileron, right rudder; no dummy the wind is coming from the other direction its the opposite and by the way do you even know where centerline is. If I was sitting right seat watching my own performance I would have thought I was drunk or asleep. I had to text my normal instructor to apologize as my performance today was definitely not representative of the progress we've made so far.

Ultimately, I didn't make any life threatening mistakes and this failure will be a good learning tool. However, I am having trouble shaking off the disappointment in myself and definitely feel like an embarrassment to myself and my normal instructor. I am wondering if anyone else has ever had a day like this?
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It sucks to have days like that but that's part of life. The good news is your instructor knows you and knows your capabilities, and they should recognize it was just an off-day. For me flying with someone new, a new CFI, caused me to overthink a lot. I was intent on doing everything perfect which ironically helped me perform worse.

I think one of the more important things to take away from this is not letting 1 error snowball into multiple. I'm not sure what your frame of mind was in the air but it sounds like you *may* have been a little stressed out from previous mistakes. As a pilot it's really important to kind of accept+move on from mistakes you made a couple minutes ago and focus on the new task at hand. Because you will make plenty of mistakes both as a student and a licensed pilot. From botched landings to bad radio calls, it's important to let that stuff leave your mind as soon as you can!
 
25 hours is pretty low and you are not alone. I have experienced the same thing when I was training. At 25hrs I haven’t solo yet. I had terrible stage checks also. But I also learned some from those checks, helped me to fly with different instructors.

Try to get plenty of sleep before next flight and you will come around.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
The captains uniform really makes it extra embarrassing.


LOL. The top comments on that video are priceless: "I've never seen someone some calmly and level headedly do exactly the wrong thing."


It sucks to have days like that but that's part of life. The good news is your instructor knows you and knows your capabilities, and they should recognize it was just an off-day. For me flying with someone new, a new CFI, caused me to overthink a lot. I was intent on doing everything perfect which ironically helped me perform worse.

I think one of the more important things to take away from this is not letting 1 error snowball into multiple. I'm not sure what your frame of mind was in the air but it sounds like you *may* have been a little stressed out from previous mistakes. As a pilot it's really important to kind of accept+move on from mistakes you made a couple minutes ago and focus on the new task at hand. Because you will make plenty of mistakes both as a student and a licensed pilot. From botched landings to bad radio calls, it's important to let that stuff leave your mind as soon as you can!
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JP6, if you perform like this all the time then I’d be concerned, but if it’s only a brain fart day at your stage of experience I would not beat yourself up over it. Just learn from it and go at it again. That’s what building experience is all about. Been a long time since I was leaning to fly, but I do remember having a few bad days in training. Especially going for the instrument rating. But, you press on, build experience and gain more confidence. Then, when you get the ticket it will be extra rewarding. Good luck.
 
I really appreciate all the comments everyone has put up. The aviation community is a really supportive community. I keep my pursuit of this private so only my wife and this forum know. I don't like talking about things before I achieve them, but it was really helpful laying my failure out there. I've failed at a ton of things in my life so far and ultimately out of that failure I've gained my greatest learnings.

Reflecting on it, I had the wrong mentality going into it. I was slightly nervous because I was being evaluated by someone else and felt like I had something to prove. I treated my stage check like it was a DPE evaluating me and If I wasn't perfect I was never going to earn the privilege of becoming a private pilot. I wanted to show my progress so bad that I worked myself up into an "it has to be perfect" mode and instead of just slowing things down, taking my time and executing on everything I've learned so far. I am glad to have gotten this experience under my belt and know what I need to do on my next stage check. The end result is I still get to keep flying so all is good! Thank You to everyone who commented and helped me work out my frustration, its been very helpful.
 
It happens. And sometimes it happens on a check ride.

The biggest lessons are two.

1) If you screw something up, once you are done, LET IT GO. Don't let it make you screw up the next thing.

2) You are your own worst critic. Instructor says your S turns were OK, but you thought they were terrible.

I did a similar thing with a lot more hours than you. I was on my VFR checkride in T-38s. I thought I screwed up the 1/2 Cuban 8 (5/8th loop the roll and recover). Thinking about that made me screw up the VFR recovery (return to base) and then screw up my first pattern and touch and go. In the debrief, check pilot said everything up to the recovery was perfect, and then I screwed things up. I still passed, but it cost me an Excellent on that checkride.
 
I had days where I thought I should quit and not fly again, it happens. So I find it interesting when other threads are talking about how fast they can blow through all of their ratings, take your time, learn your skills, eventually they will become second nature like riding a bike, but you have to put the time in, both book study and lessons / practice.
 
For me the greatest learning tool has been to write stuff (mistakes) down after they happen. It helps organize your thoughts and understand what went wrong, even if I didn't understand why.

Over the years I've had many embarrassing days like yours while flying with instructors. I don't know why your mouth and brain stop functioning, I just know it happens. The fact that you took the time to point out your mistakes on a public forum it, to me, is a sign of a good pilot. You are willing to do what it takes to get better.

I think the only way to minimize the brain fog problem, is repetition and experience.
 
Everyone has a bad day.

When I was a student pilot there were times I could have 2 or 3 bad days in a row, followed by the day I could do nothing wrong.

Don't sweat it, get back on that horse and git r done...
 
All the comments here have been great! I use this forum to help relieve my anger with myself at my poor performance. Unfortunately, I logged another bad day. That's two in a row now. The first one on Sunday which prompted my first post and now today. Based off my work schedule I do my best to schedule 4 lessons per week. If I get up in the air twice, its a good week. I'm sure everyone here knows how that goes. I texted my instructor last night to see if there was anything I could do to prep for the lesson, he tells me "nope you're going to solo". I've been endorsed for 4 weeks now and the weather is finally looking good so I'm pumped. Other than my terrible stage check, I've made consistent landings the previous two times I've been out, about 10 consistently good landings.

I get to the field this morning and there's frost on the wings. No, problem I'll continue on with my pre-flight, I'm early so we've got time for it to melt. I go to sump the right wing and notice the sump is really leaking and fuel has damaged the tire on one of the mains. At this point I'm thinking, "Whelp guess its going to be a ground lesson today." Luckily there was another plane available. I get the pre-flight done pull the plane into the sun and about 30 min later I'm taxing from the upper ramp to 24 to do my 3 take off's and landings my instructor. I finish my run-up and safety briefing, pull up to the hold position, make my call (un-towered airport), no one on final and 30 seconds later I'm rotating. Pattern looks good, approach looks good, landing safe and within standard but needed just a little more left rudder and just a little more flare (I won't beat myself up over it).

Time for #2. Take off 24, pattern is looking good. Just before base my instructor tells me to divert to 6 because the winds have shifted. I'm a just slightly thrown off as we've never done that before so I don't know the call or the exact pattern procedure. Either way, I get on the downwind and its looking good. Approach was a little off due to a tail wind but I get it back on course and glide. Landing was safe and within standard but maybe not as good as the last. Ended up holding in ground effect more than I usually do (which my instructor has been wanting me to do) but spend all my brain power on that so my eyes aren't down the runway perfectly and I don't get as much flare as I could have since I'm not as focused on the sink as I should be. Its not enough to prevent me from soloing at this point.

Time for #3. Take off 6 this time, pattern is looking good. Instructor gives me some feedback about crabbing to the right while on the downwind to compensate for the overshooting I had on the last base turn. It's helpful. Approach looks decent, round out is good, then it all goes to ****. I'm fighting for centerline, trying to hold in ground effect, starting to drift to the right of centerline, I must have pulled back on the yoke trying to get back to centerline because I feel us balloon a bit and realize I can't save it, I call out "going around" add full power and go around. It's here I know that was the right decision but I'm not gonna solo. I apologize to my instructor on the upwind (I know it's got to be extremely difficult to sit in that seat and not know exactly what your student is going to do). I go around the pattern again, come in for another landing, approach is good, round out is good, but the landing just isn't there, we come down a bit hard. We did two more and it just got worse from there.

The responsibility for the poor performance rests solely on me. At the end, I just wanted to park the plane, get my log book signed and leave. There were about 8 pilots/instructors in the training center when I got back (that never happens) and I'm feeling like I don't belong amongst them. Kind of like an imposter. I'm not sure how to describe it. I was hoping the de-brief would be short since I'm fully aware of the **** job I did. I assess my own landings after each one and 8/10 times know exactly what I could have done better. Another hour logged and no solo. I'm completely deflated. I'm feeling like I lost all the progress I've made. I've logged quite a few landings and it just seems like one step forward two steps back.

Any suggestions on course correction? My instructor wants to move forward and start navigation. Part of me thinks it will be a good idea to focus on something else for a bit. Maybe I'm way too focused on wanting to hit that solo milestone that I'm getting in my own way. Contrarily, The part of myself that competes with myself says focus solely on landings until you prove you can solo. Any CFI's here have any advice?
 
JP6 said:
I'm feeling like I don't belong amongst them. Kind of like an imposter.
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I'm just a student too, but I just want to say that it's usually the most qualified people who get imposter syndrome. Like the Dunning Kruger effect - it's the most knowledgeable people who are most aware of their faults.
And your posts lead me to believe that you have the right mentality for this (again - I'm just a student and not a CFI like youre asking for). But I fully believe that the post-flight introspection, analysis of your mistakes and asking how they can be improved upon, really exemplifies that you're the right kind of person to go about this journey. It's the overconfident people that get others (and themselves) killed. I'm not sure you're supposed to be perfect at this stage. I've got about as many hours as you and I'm certainly very, very far from it.
 
JP6 said:
Time for #3. Take off 6 this time, pattern is looking good. Instructor gives me some feedback about crabbing to the right while on the downwind to compensate for the overshooting I had on the last base turn. It's helpful. Approach looks decent, round out is good, then it all goes to ****. I'm fighting for centerline, trying to hold in ground effect, starting to drift to the right of centerline, I must have pulled back on the yoke trying to get back to centerline because I feel us balloon a bit and realize I can't save it, I call out "going around" add full power and go around. It's here I know that was the right decision but I'm not gonna solo. I apologize to my instructor on the upwind (I know it's got to be extremely difficult to sit in that seat and not know exactly what your student is going to do). I go around the pattern again, come in for another landing, approach is good, round out is good, but the landing just isn't there, we come down a bit hard. We did two more and it just got worse from there.

The responsibility for the poor performance rests solely on me. At the end, I just wanted to park the plane, get my log book signed and leave. There were about 8 pilots/instructors in the training center when I got back (that never happens) and I'm feeling like I don't belong amongst them. Kind of like an imposter. I'm not sure how to describe it. I was hoping the de-brief would be short since I'm fully aware of the **** job I did. I assess my own landings after each one and 8/10 times know exactly what I could have done better. Another hour logged and no solo. I'm completely deflated. I'm feeling like I lost all the progress I've made. I've logged quite a few landings and it just seems like one step forward two steps back.

Any suggestions on course correction? My instructor wants to move forward and start navigation. Part of me thinks it will be a good idea to focus on something else for a bit. Maybe I'm way too focused on wanting to hit that solo milestone that I'm getting in my own way. Contrarily, The part of myself that competes with myself says focus solely on landings until you prove you can solo. Any CFI's here have any advice?
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The fact that you are thinking a botched landing necessitating a go-around is "everything going to ****" tells me that you're being too hard on yourself :). At 25-30h you just do not have the experience and muscle memory yet to nail the landings every time. Some are going to be too hard, some will have you floating down the runway too far, some are going to be off centerline, some will be a go around, some will side load the gear a little, etc.. That's just the nature of learning by experience. It's why you're in flight school -- you're still acquiring the necessary skills. As long as you keep up your flying you'll get there. The only way you won't get there is if you quit :eek:

One thing I will say, which I mentioned after your first post, is that it sounds like you might be getting into your own head too much. In both writeups there seems to be a trend where you make a mistake and subsequently make a few other mistakes. Sounds like they're correlated. I'm wondering if maybe you're spending a lot of time thinking about your last hiccup while you're in the next lap of the pattern (whether out of a misplaced sense of embarrassment, frustration, etc)? Do you feel like you are thinking about it a lot while you're in air? The faster you can let that stuff go, the better. I know that's easier said than done, but it helps if you just remind yourself that your only way out is through, and you're going to keep at it until you get it right.
 
Mongoose Aviator said:
Relax.

It sounds like you are trying for perfect. imho That will prevent you from getting to Safe and then being able to learn further.
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^THIS.

@JP6 you were smart-enough/composed-enough to firewall the throttle and call a go-around when the landing started going astray. Lots of seasoned pilots fight a poor approach and end up bending metal instead of just going around and trying again. You should almost EXPECT to have to go around on your landing, but be pleasantly surprised when you don't have to. It's just about being mentally prepared to do so. As far as the landings, it will get better with practice, quit beating yourself up focusing on every last detail. Hold the aircraft in ground effect as long as you can just above the runway. As you get that feeling/sight picture ingrained in your head, you'll be able to work on pinpointing the landing spot much more closely. You objective right now is to get the aircraft on the ground in a controlled and safe manner, worrying about your nosewheel not being perfectly on the centerline for every landing is causing you "not to see the forest for the trees." Calm down, work on the fundamentals (airspeeds, altitudes, wind corrections, checklists, procedures) and the finer details (landing spot, proper radio calls) will fall into place.
 
It's been said already, you are your own worst critic. Do a post flight self-debrief, be honest, and involve your CFI. You'll see two different perspectives: one will be yours, and will focus on what went wrong and the other will be your CFI and might focus on what went right. It's a learning curve, and sometimes it's pretty steep. Learn from mistakes, and also learn from what went right. There will always be mistakes. And remember that any bad day is still experience. It may not be fun, it may be frustrating, but it's a learning experience. So accept it, learn from it, and move on.
 
On my PPL check ride I honestly thought I failed:

- 180 turn under the hood
- recovery from unusual attitude under the hood
- emergency landing
- navigation
- side slip

At the end of the day, I passed each of them. Some weren’t glorious and were brought up in the post flight briefing, but some weren’t brought up at all. You’re your own harshest critique and that’s a good thing. It keeps you on your toes (and on the rudder).
 
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Chin up, you'll get it. Every pilot was once where you are. As others have said, you are your own worst critic. Someone wise once told me that the people who worry a lot are the ones who probably shouldn't, and the people who never worry probably should. The crazy part is one day it will just click. You won't be perfect - no one is - but you'll have that a-ha moment of "hey, I'm flying this plane, it isn't flying me!" Like a lot of complex motor skills, it is difficult to verbalize, but you'll just start to see and feel things better and have a sense that you are truly in command of what the aircraft is doing. And to be honest, you probably aren't close to that point yet. That doesn't mean you can't safely fly solo, but you are still working at honing those skills. Your "internal automation" hasn't developed yet. It's no different than learning to ride a bike, or drive a car, or if you're my five-year-old son, how to tie your shoe laces. He can do it, but it takes two minutes and every motion is a deliberate conscious decision.

One friendly word of advice. Be careful that you don't get so far in your own head that you jeopardize your own safety. Others here have already said that you have to let the imperfect moments go, and that is sage advice. Learn from them and move on. But once you're up there by yourself, you have to keep your cool and have faith in your ability. You will make some errors here and there, even after you have your PPL. If you start to get frustrated or lose confidence after you make a minor error and it starts cascading, you are increasing your risk of a bad outcome. There will even be times when you are doing everything right but someone else might be putting pressure on you, such as a controller trying to get you to do things beyond your comfort level because *they* are getting behind a busy pattern. Fly the airplane, keep your cool, keep your situational awareness, and trust your abilities.
 
traumamed said:
Someone wise once told me that the people who worry a lot are the ones who probably shouldn't, and the people who never worry probably should
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A variation was told to my 1st year law school class just before the start of final exams.

If you walk out worrying that you missed everything, rejoice, if you think you did great, worry.
 
midlifeflyer said:
A variation was told to my 1st year law school class just before the start of final exams.

If you walk out worrying that you missed everything, rejoice, if you think you did great, worry.
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Man isn't that the truth! My med school and licensing exams that I was 100% sure I failed ended up being my strongest scores. :cool:
 
Lots of great encouragement and advice.

let me add, when you first solo, you WILL come in too high and have to go around. Without that extra instructor weight, you will not sink as planned. Just go around, extend your downwind a bit, and try again. Just remember, your first landing by yourself will almost for certain be aborted. No problem, enjoy the ride and extra flight time, as that is why you are getting your license in the first place (you said it was for a hobby and enjoyment, so enjoy it dang it!) :)
 
Oh yeah, and being lined up solo on the runway ready to depart, I asked myself, “What the hell am I doing?……well, here goes something.” I shoved in the throttle and ended up having one of the best days of my life. The feeling afterwards of soloing a plane is something I will never forget. Hang in there. I went through at least 3 instructors and several planes over at least two years and maybe 65-80 hours before I had my PPL.
 
Too much thinking and being in the past. Look forward sir. TRUST YOUR INSTRUCTOR. He/ she wouldn’t solo you if they didn’t think you were more than ready. Things don’t go perfectly flying. The goal for a private pilot is safe and proficient, not perfect. You are upset about a go around, I’m willing to bet your instructor was anxiously watching when you started struggling, then jumped and did a fist pump when he realized you chose to go around.

Stop worrying about making mistakes, just focus on flying. Things like how much rudder or ailerons should be fading out of your mind while flying now. Instead you should be conscious of staying on center line and maintaining speed and glide path. Adjustments should be smooth and anticipatory, at least that’s the goal. And focus on hitting your speed numbers, especially short final.
I was like you to a lessor degree. I finally figured out that a lesson where the instructor doesn’t take the controls is a good one. When they are mostly quiet while flying is a great one.

Flying with a new instructor can be nerve wracking. I just focus on flying like they aren’t there, which is what you need to do. Save worrying about mistakes for the debrief.
 
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