So, student pilots.. Who are we and where do we stand?

Great story! Agree about it taking a little longer at our age. Got my PPL at 59, instrument at 61, and now at 62 doing commercial training. Working to ultimately get CFI.

How long? I like your POV - work hard, and when it happens it happens.
 
It's been great to read about guys like you that did this later in life. It's very motivating to me to keep at it. I wanted to be a pilot as a teenager but life (and maybe a few hundred bad decisions) got in the way. I was in the USMC for 8 years, originally thinking that would lead to a flying career. Nope. Didn't happen.

So when I started the next step of this journey a few months ago I was thinking I'd get the PPL and go right into instrument training. I don't know where it will lead but I'll keep flying and learning until I can't.
 
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Did a couple of approaches with partial panel yesterday. It was brutal and I felt like a total idiot. The CFI asked at one point "where the hell are you going?" Um, I am trying to capture the outbound course to the left. "So why are you going to the left? You need to go right".

I was lost and confused. Ended up redeeming myself on the final ILS approach to minimums and landing. I blame it on the gusty winds.
 
Rollin Hand said:
It's been great to read about guys like you that did this later in life. It's very motivating to me to keep at it. I wanted to be a pilot as a teenager but life (and maybe a few hundred bad decisions) got in the way. I was in the USMC for 8 years, originally thinking that would lead to a flying career. Nope. Didn't happen.

So when I started the next step of this journey a few months ago I was thinking I'd get the PPL and go right into instrument training. I don't know where it will lead but I'll keep flying and learning until I can't.
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Enjoy the journey! My first logged flight was in 1987. I got my private in 2000, IR in 2013, Commercial in 2019 (thank you EAA!) and now I am working on getting a CFI. It's been a long road, but lots of fun. I understand how things can get in the way.
 
One year ago today, I took my discovery flight. Began training in July, passed my private checkride in November. I'm right at 165 hours now and running out of excuses to delay Instrument - I've got the written done (thanks Sheppard,) got all the cross country time, make a point of picking up flight following all the time so I finally feel proficient on the radio. Distracted myself with the fun training for high performance, complex, and tailwheel endorsements. Gotta bite the bullet and put the foggles on again soon. :rolleyes:
 
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At about 25 hours in by logbook, flying two or three times per month is not helping me rid myself of occasional motion sickness, so I took a week off of work and booked the entire week with a lesson each day. I know that some of these are likely to be cancelled due to weather or other issues, but I'm still optimistic that most of them will occur. If it's still happening at the end of the week, I think I'm likely done.
 
When I started lessons I got motion sickness all the time. You can get through it. It’s just a matter of flying enough to get desensitized. Two or three times a month isn’t enough. Nor can you do it in one week.

Suggest you get a relief band, and extra batteries.

Suck on a peppermint ball - that oil helps.

Get the best NR headset you can’t afford. Lightspeed or Bose. It makes a HUGE difference.

Is it hot now where you fly? Put an ice soaked dish towel around your neck.


These tricks will keep the motion sickness away enough to allow you to desensitize. After a while you won’t need them.
 
So my CFI has a student who seems to be struggling a lot after 60 hrs (25 hrs dual instruction). Told me he is going to fly 1-2 more times with the guy before he has to have a come to Jesus moment and suggesting perhaps a different hobby.
I feel bad for the guy but the CFI is correct. I flew with this guy on a 3 hrs flight and he could not hold a heading for more than 30 secs.

I myself am at 25 hr hood time. So I need 15 more hrs of hood time then the 250 mile trip. Starting the study part for the checkride today and probably be ready in a month.
 
ColinD said:
One year ago today, I took my discovery flight. Began training in July, passed my private checkride in November. I'm right at 165 hours now and running out of excuses to delay Instrument - I've got the written done (thanks Sheppard,) got all the cross country time, make a point of picking up flight following all the time so I finally feel proficient on the radio. Distracted myself with the fun training for high performance, complex, and tailwheel endorsements. Gotta bite the bullet and put the foggles on again soon. :rolleyes:
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Dont delay it man. Go do it. In my opinion instrument rating is far more important than anything else. It might actually save your life some day.
 
ahmad said:
So my CFI has a student who seems to be struggling a lot after 60 hrs (25 hrs dual instruction). Told me he is going to fly 1-2 more times with the guy before he has to have a come to Jesus moment and suggesting perhaps a different hobby.
I feel bad for the guy but the CFI is correct. I flew with this guy on a 3 hrs flight and he could not hold a heading for more than 30 secs.

I myself am at 25 hr hood time. So I need 15 more hrs of hood time then the 250 mile trip. Starting the study part for the checkride today and probably be ready in a month.
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I think the Come to Jesus moment should be that a new/different CFII is needed.
 
250 NM flight requirement is out of the way.
Loved flying my arc nemesis approach. Not one word spoken by the cfi throughout the flight. only thing he had for me is that I need to read back the EFC time when I was was established in the hold out of the missed approach.

This one felt really good. 9 more hrs under the hood and I am ready for the checkride.
 

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I soloed today.

I'm not sure I can add much to that. It was over 40 years in the making and it was worth the wait. It was an indescribable feeling :).

I'm ready to attack the second half of PPL training, pass the check ride, and go straight into Instrument training.

I've had to convince myself each day that I can do this and yes, it has been hard, but yes it has been worth it.
 
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Rollin Hand said:
I soloed today.

I'm not sure I can add much to that. It was over 40 years in the making and it was worth the wait. It was an indescribable feeling :).

I'm ready to attack the second half of PPL training, pass the check ride, and go straight into Instrument training.

I've had to convince self each day that I can do this and yes, it has been hard, but yes it has been worth it.
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Passed my commercial check ride yesterday.
In the past 35 days I have flown over 90 hours to reach the flight hour requirements, taken 2 knowledge tests and taken 2 check rides (instrument and commercial).
I have the CFI checkride scheduled for October 4th.
 
Rollin Hand said:
I soloed today.

I'm not sure I can add much to that. It was over 40 years in the making and it was worth the wait. It was an indescribable feeling :).

I'm ready to attack the second half of PPL training, pass the check ride, and go straight into Instrument training.

I've had to convince myself each day that I can do this and yes, it has been hard, but yes it has been worth it.
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Congrats. You'll never forget your 1st solo. You can absolutely do it. Keep at it.
 
Done done done done!

Just passed my Transport Canada flight test for PPL. Had to do the partial for unusual attitude under the hood cause the first time my reaction on throttle was bad. Got perfect on the retest.

It might be the first time I am excited to do paperwork to apply for the license and booklet.
 
I took off of work and had five flights booked this week so that I could finally feel like I was making progress, as I feel like I've been stuck in training purgatory all year due to scheduling issues. But because of the weather and/or maintenance issues I've only been able to fly one out of the five sessions :mad::mad::mad:

This hasn't been a good year for me when it comes to flying. I've been doing self-paced ground school in the meantime, but I really haven't made tangible progress in practical flying in months.
 
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I am an older newbie student and female . . . had to put lessons on hold for 7 months due to medical issues. Apparently I enjoy uphill battles, lol so I'm getting back into lessons again soon but restarting seems to be a more daunting task than when I originally started. Looking for someone to be my "dumb question buddy" I feel like there are questions that I won't ask pilots face to face for fear of them changing the locks at the flight school hahahaha! Thanks so much for the help!
 
Nicole said:
I am an older newbie student and female . . . had to put lessons on hold for 7 months due to medical issues. Apparently I enjoy uphill battles, lol so I'm getting back into lessons again soon but restarting seems to be a more daunting task than when I originally started. Looking for someone to be my "dumb question buddy" I feel like there are questions that I won't ask pilots face to face for fear of them changing the locks at the flight school hahahaha! Thanks so much for the help!
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Hey Nicole! Welcome! You are welcome to post all your "dumb questions" on the forum, if you want lots of answers, and you can pm me if you don't want to ask "publicly" and I will try to answer them or at least point you to where an answer might be found. :)

Also, contrary to the adage, there may be dumb questions, but even dumb questions are a smarter way to go than ignorance! Not wanting to ask things because you're worried other people will think you're dumb is human, but it's okay to ask them and you will learn more if you're willing to risk questions that sound dumb to you. I am sure the flight school is very used to "dumb" questions and they won't change the locks unless you start asking dumb questions like "Can I rent the plane when I'm drunk?" or something like that. :)
 
Nicole said:
I am an older newbie student and female . . . had to put lessons on hold for 7 months due to medical issues. Apparently I enjoy uphill battles, lol so I'm getting back into lessons again soon but restarting seems to be a more daunting task than when I originally started. Looking for someone to be my "dumb question buddy" I feel like there are questions that I won't ask pilots face to face for fear of them changing the locks at the flight school hahahaha! Thanks so much for the help!
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Considering the potential consequences of getting things wrong, a good bit of advice is never hesitate to ask until you are sure you got what you needed.

I had the experience of my earlier instructor who was a great guy but who didn’t have the experience of my current CFI. As such he wasn’t very good at picking out where I was having trouble. And his explanations for stuff was less detailed. Coupled with me not knowing what to ask, I think it caused slower progress in some situations.

I have also found that not all instructors have the same answers. And while I haven’t seen someone gave me a wrong answer. Sometimes what a different CFI tells you could make something click. Crosswind slip on final was one where previous CFI never managed to explained well. He tells me I need to change bank and use rudder. And while I do that now automatically. The one time I flew with a more senior instructor who held the yoke to force me to keep a bank angle, making the whole thing rudder only for me, really solidified the lesson. Now I see a 90 degree stiff crosswind and it’s fine. I know my limits and I know I can handle it.

Asking and getting it right after is also what they are looking for. No one expects perfection. It is correcting problems that matters. Accidents are not usually one thing going wrong but a sequence of mistakes that snowballs. So speak up when you aren’t sure. Your CFI should be comfortable with how students are. Unless you are one of the monster students likely nothing you ask or do will be something they haven’t seen. I mean my CFI just told me about a guy who’s about to get kick out of the college program he instructs at. This student had 5 tries before he pass his written, and still doesn’t know a pitot from a tank vent. So when the instructors do the walk around with him and asks him questions he’d point to the tank vent and say that’s where they get the airspeed information from. And then he’ll keep picking random stuff he remembers and assigning to other things he sees in the walk around. And he flares to almost a stall 50 foot above the runway once and almost killed them.
 
Baked Potato said:
I took off of work and had five flights booked this week so that I could finally feel like I was making progress, as I feel like I've been stuck in training purgatory all year due to scheduling issues. But because of the weather and/or maintenance issues I've only been able to fly one out of the five sessions :mad::mad::mad:

This hasn't been a good year for me when it comes to flying. I've been doing self-paced ground school in the meantime, but I really haven't made tangible progress in practical flying in months.
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I hear you. I took longer than expected cause of the not cold enough weather this past winter resulting in more lake effect weather in the Toronto area.

It’ll all be worth the trouble when you get that pass.
 
waiting on instrument checkride, and then on to commercial!
 
Instrument checkride is penciled in for Aug 26. I did really well on the written but still feel like I dont know anything. My CFI assures me I will do fine but I still dread the upcoming day.
 
SebIp said:
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Asking and getting it right after is also what they are looking for. No one expects perfection. It is correcting problems that matters. Accidents are not usually one thing going wrong but a sequence of mistakes that snowballs. So speak up when you aren’t sure. Your CFI should be comfortable with how students are. Unless you are one of the monster students likely nothing you ask or do will be something they haven’t seen. I mean my CFI just told me about a guy who’s about to get kick out of the college program he instructs at. This student had 5 tries before he pass his written, and still doesn’t know a pitot from a tank vent. So when the instructors do the walk around with him and asks him questions he’d point to the tank vent and say that’s where they get the airspeed information from. And then he’ll keep picking random stuff he remembers and assigning to other things he sees in the walk around. And he flares to almost a stall 50 foot above the runway once and almost killed them.
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Thanks for that reinforcing that insight, Seblp. As a newb student, I have a peripheral concern of not being "one of those" people yet, also, not wanting to ask a question for which I should probably already have had an answer for with proper studying. As I progress, now I won't feel weird asking questions and put myself and a CFI into a risky scenario; better to be dead sure than...the other way.
 
Reading about folks experiences in this thread has been helpful. I'm in my late 40's and just completed my second solo an I'm about 2/3rds through the process. It has not been easy. It has not been cheap. However, it has been worth it. The ancillary benefits (greater confidence, decision making, new neural pathways, increased discipline) alone have made this journey worth it for me. Hang in there everyone, you've got this!
 
Due to a lack of instructors at my part 61 school, I've had to unfortunately start at a part 141 pilot mill; tonight is the first class. I'm really bummed as the 141 has no tail draggers.
 
WDD said:
Great story! Agree about it taking a little longer at our age. Got my PPL at 59, instrument at 61, and now at 62 doing commercial training. Working to ultimately get CFI.

How long? I like your POV - work hard, and when it happens it happens.
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Well, I am 10 years behind/ahead at 69. My first hurdle in medical, then ground. No aspirations of doing anything beyond SP or PPL. Know there is a lot to learn, and it is completely outside my wheelhouse. Will see if a 69 year old brain can take it all in. If I get this done might inspire others.
 
My ppl checkride was this past Wednesday.Passed the oral but time comes to fly and the weather is looking rough,it knew it was coming but was hoping to be done before.One of those things it may have been possible but my planned xc had us going right toward it and if it was moving fast it woulda hit us about an hour in.I spent a long time looking at the sky,the forecast,the windsock,my instructor,and the DPE and finally decided to call it quits.The taf was showing 12g19kt crosswind in 1 1/2 hr lol.Turns out it didn’t even really get bad but it was a good decision to quit.I didn’t want to get failed for bad judgment
 
Very new to aviation, just had my discovery flight (and first flight ever) in July. I was given an amazing opportunity to not have to rent the plane I'm learning in, and I'm pursuing my private pilots license for now. I'm about two weeks in and have about 24 hours. I was supposed to solo at the end of this week but unfortunately some minor repairs are needed befor my instructor is comfortable sending me up alone. So I'm studying hard for my written and checking all the boxes I can:)
 
Lenaplane&simple said:
Very new to aviation, just had my discovery flight (and first flight ever) in July. I was given an amazing opportunity to not have to rent the plane I'm learning in, and I'm pursuing my private pilots license for now. I'm about two weeks in and have about 24 hours. I was supposed to solo at the end of this week but unfortunately some minor repairs are needed befor my instructor is comfortable sending me up alone. So I'm studying hard for my written and checking all the boxes I can:)
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Get used to the delays. I have learned that things dont always move along the way I want it. My instrument check-ride has been moved several times over the past 6 weeks. Finally got it scheduled for tomorrow. Last night I was doing a mock test with my CFI and he said the DPE was trying to cancel tomorrow's exam. lol

As it stands we're good to go. Fingers crossed I dont screw it up and get rated tomorrow.
 
Is it normal to request a different runway? Tomorrow winds are supposed to be very atypical I'm direction due to the hurricane in the Atlantic. I've noticed that my tower seems reluctant at times to switch runway direction, however there's a second intersecting runway that is not as wide and half the length of the main runway. Not a problem for me, but may be for jets. Wind forecasts look like they heavily favor the smaller runway.

If I am exceeding my xwind minimums on the normal runway if that's the active one, can I request the smaller one that nobody's using? (It's normally crossed by taxiing traffic during the usual routing)
 
Baked Potato said:
Is it normal to request a different runway? Tomorrow winds are supposed to be very atypical I'm direction due to the hurricane in the Atlantic. I've noticed that my tower seems reluctant at times to switch runway direction, however there's a second intersecting runway that is not as wide and half the length of the main runway. Not a problem for me, but may be for jets. Wind forecasts look like they heavily favor the smaller runway.

If I am exceeding my xwind minimums on the normal runway if that's the active one, can I request the smaller one that nobody's using? (It's normally crossed by taxiing traffic during the usual routing)
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There is nothing wrong with requesting a different runway at a towered airport. I do it about 25% of the time I fly, either because of xwind or convenience (usually the latter to be closer to my hangar or the self serve fuel pumps). If it's a full stop they accommodate nearly 100% of the time.

For staying in the pattern at a busy airport they might be reluctant to have you operating on a different runway than the rest of the traffic. But there is zero harm in asking.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
There is nothing wrong with requesting a different runway at a towered airport. I do it about 25% of the time I fly, either because of xwind or convenience (usually the latter to be closer to my hangar or the self serve fuel pumps). If it's a full stop they accommodate nearly 100% of the time.

For staying in the pattern at a busy airport they might be reluctant to have you operating on a different runway than the rest of the traffic. But there is zero harm in asking.
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FWIW, for phraseology I usually just add "Runway 10 if able" in my initial call up. I don't give them an explanation unless they ask, and they rarely do.
 
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