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Throughout my first 50 pre-solo hours, things were pretty good. I grew comfortable with flying. Eventually got super comfortable on the radio and most maneuvers. Took me a bit to nail landings and get comfortable with landing in a slip which is why I didn't solo until about 50 hours. There was only one bad experience where I flew with a head cold, got up to about 1000 feet, and my instructor and I turned around because my ears were really hurting -- lesson learned!
My first solo was technically an emergency, though I didn't know enough at the time to declare. I lost a cylinder and noticed an RPM drop. Reacted pretty well - turned into downwind/base/final, landed, and taxi'd back. My instructor saw fuel flow was way high during a run up and that was the end of that.
Second solo was a bit different. I wasn't feeling 100% that day, had had a lot of coffee (which I don't drink that often, so perhaps was a little edgy), and was a bit irrationally fearful of something like the first solo happening again. Furthermore, I had done some spin training with my instructor, and had started thinking (perhaps overthinking) how steep my turns were in the pattern, etc. etc. I found myself staring at the attitude indicator on ascent instead of out the window. For a split second, I'm not sure if it was nerves or anxiety or simply a small head cold, but I became a tad disoriented and my heart started racing. Still, I turned crosswind, downwind, base, final and had an awesome landing. Told my instructor I wasn't feeling two more laps and taxi'd back.
Since then, I've been a little concerned/perhaps a little overworked about soloing again, especially with some of the recent incidents I've been reading about. It's probably nerves, but one thing I've noticed is this.... the other day, I flew one leg of a dual cross country without issues. Felt great, landed great, completely clear headed! My instructor said it was great flying. We landed, I ended up having disgusting airport food - a $100 quesadilla with cheese, not so great for my stomach - and after that, the return home didn't feel right. My stomach got upset, perhaps I felt a little dehydrated, and asked my instructor to take the controls for a few minutes.
I'm beginning to wonder if I'm just one of those people that's super sensitive to coffee/diet/lack of sleep, and if perhaps it affects my flying. I'm kind of wondering where to go from here and I'm wondering if others experienced this early on. I'm willing to bet that, just like driving a car, eventually it'll seem second nature and any minor nerves (and things that go with it) will disappear. Still, I'm also wondering if I should perhaps run this by my doctor and have her verify it's just sensitivity to coffee/perhaps certain foods that make me feel this way.
Thoughts? Thanks!
My first solo was technically an emergency, though I didn't know enough at the time to declare. I lost a cylinder and noticed an RPM drop. Reacted pretty well - turned into downwind/base/final, landed, and taxi'd back. My instructor saw fuel flow was way high during a run up and that was the end of that.
Second solo was a bit different. I wasn't feeling 100% that day, had had a lot of coffee (which I don't drink that often, so perhaps was a little edgy), and was a bit irrationally fearful of something like the first solo happening again. Furthermore, I had done some spin training with my instructor, and had started thinking (perhaps overthinking) how steep my turns were in the pattern, etc. etc. I found myself staring at the attitude indicator on ascent instead of out the window. For a split second, I'm not sure if it was nerves or anxiety or simply a small head cold, but I became a tad disoriented and my heart started racing. Still, I turned crosswind, downwind, base, final and had an awesome landing. Told my instructor I wasn't feeling two more laps and taxi'd back.
Since then, I've been a little concerned/perhaps a little overworked about soloing again, especially with some of the recent incidents I've been reading about. It's probably nerves, but one thing I've noticed is this.... the other day, I flew one leg of a dual cross country without issues. Felt great, landed great, completely clear headed! My instructor said it was great flying. We landed, I ended up having disgusting airport food - a $100 quesadilla with cheese, not so great for my stomach - and after that, the return home didn't feel right. My stomach got upset, perhaps I felt a little dehydrated, and asked my instructor to take the controls for a few minutes.
I'm beginning to wonder if I'm just one of those people that's super sensitive to coffee/diet/lack of sleep, and if perhaps it affects my flying. I'm kind of wondering where to go from here and I'm wondering if others experienced this early on. I'm willing to bet that, just like driving a car, eventually it'll seem second nature and any minor nerves (and things that go with it) will disappear. Still, I'm also wondering if I should perhaps run this by my doctor and have her verify it's just sensitivity to coffee/perhaps certain foods that make me feel this way.
Thoughts? Thanks!
