Student Pilot vs Private Pilot

kimberlyanne546

kimberlyanne546

Final Approach
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Kimberly
I just posted this in another thread when speaking to a student pilot.

Do any of you remember the "old" you (the student pilot days)?

For example, on your first solo or solo cross countries, what did you used to do that you would do differently now?

Here is what I posted:



Here is the "old" me:

OMG there is another plane in the pattern, I will sit here on the ground and wait for him to land, no matter what, because what if my little airplane doesn't take off or I make the runway unusable for him!!!!

Here is the "pilot" me at the hold short line for the active runway at a nontowered airport, upon seeing and hearing other planes in the pattern coming in to land:

1. What type of aircraft is it? Is it faster or slower than me?

2. What leg of the pattern is it on? Downwind = definitely ok, Base = ok only if a very slow plane (and not an ultralight, they fly a tighter pattern), Final = never ok and kinda rude.

3. Can I safely make it onto the runway and into my upwind before the other pilot touches down? Is the other pilot doing a touch and go or is he going to put the plane away? If a touch and go, how soon will he catch up with me if I'm also doing pattern work? In this case sometimes it makes sense to wait since the 152 is slower than most.
 
Pretty much the same, except now I'm pretty good at not taxiing to or landing on the wrong runway.
 
I navigated by pilotage, yes there was one VOR and one ADF reciever in the Brand New C150 Commuter II. Now, pilotage backed up by iPad.

I had a detailed hand computed with manual E6B nav log and computed ground speed updates inflight by timing between Nav points and spinning the E6B. Now I compare the GS readout with the computer compiled and printed Nav log.
 
I'd say the biggest change for me wasn't from student pilot to private pilot, it was from aircraft renter to aircraft owner.

I suppose I could be wrong... but I suspect I know more about my aircraft than some of the crustiest pilots know about the planes they rent. I always felt unsure and timid in rental planes. The timid part of me was always trying to not upset anyone, get the aircraft back on time, keep it clean, and be extra vigilant to do a good preflight because you never knew what the last guy had done to it.
 
Mine was probably also a navigation change.
C-150's were considered extreme high tech if they contained high falutin high tech gadgets like an ADF receiver, so we had to rely on the single Narco ADF. And VOR dead reckoning was the norm in our good 4-5 mile visibilities --- thanks to the smog that immigrated to southern New England from NYC. (back in the 60's)
Now, in the desert SW with our normal 130 mile visibilities, its, "Where do you want to go? 60 miles thata way? Well, just follow your nose!"
 
I took insane liberties with weather at cross-countries because my home base KABQ and its training areas are located in a pocket where we almost always have excellent weather. I only had to cancel once, due to thunderstorms. So I basically started to understand weather only when I went on my own across the mountains.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I just posted this in another thread when speaking to a student pilot.

Do any of you remember the "old" you (the student pilot days)?

For example, on your first solo or solo cross countries, what did you used to do that you would do differently now?

Here is what I posted:



Here is the "old" me:

OMG there is another plane in the pattern, I will sit here on the ground and wait for him to land, no matter what, because what if my little airplane doesn't take off or I make the runway unusable for him!!!!

Here is the "pilot" me at the hold short line for the active runway at a nontowered airport, upon seeing and hearing other planes in the pattern coming in to land:

1. What type of aircraft is it? Is it faster or slower than me?

2. What leg of the pattern is it on? Downwind = definitely ok, Base = ok only if a very slow plane (and not an ultralight, they fly a tighter pattern), Final = never ok and kinda rude.

3. Can I safely make it onto the runway and into my upwind before the other pilot touches down? Is the other pilot doing a touch and go or is he going to put the plane away? If a touch and go, how soon will he catch up with me if I'm also doing pattern work? In this case sometimes it makes sense to wait since the 152 is slower than most.
Click to expand...

Yeah, totally. This just happened last week, another plane entering downwind. I would have waited as a student, mostly because I have to back taxi a bit here, but as a student I would back taxi, stop, and do the pre-takeoff checklist AGAIN then look around, THEN take off. Now I double check everything still but while back taxiing, and I don't stop, just turn and go.
 
As a student pilot I thought that I was fearless, and nothing was too much of a challenge for me. Today, the pilot, I am not afraid to say "I'm not sure about that, I think I will get a second opinion" before I act and get into a bad situation.
 
Hmm.

Many changes are as I expected - less reliance on checklists for basic tasks, for example, in all phases (let's please not get into an argument about whether this is good or bad; AFAIC, it just is).

But the overall change I would point is the most important is that the entire decision making process relies on much finer or more subtle inputs, both in the sense that more stuff gets included, as well as degree to which things previously considered are evaluated. This holds true for go no-go decisions as well as while in the air, and works both ways: in some cases my decisions today would appear conservative to the student me, whereas in others they would appear extremely risky.
 
I have learned so much since passing that checkride. If anything, I've learned how much I don't know, so I tend to be more cautious. My father has been a pilot for 50 years; every time I fly with him I learn something, and I think I'll never know as much as he does.

I'm much better at visualizing runways at unfamiliar airports.
I realized the benefit of ATC.
I've become even more of a stickler with preflight inspections and fuel management. I learned the hard way, because the place I used to rent blamed me for something that I know I didn't do, but I didn't catch it in preflight. Never again.

I also realized that the CFI I had for my private training really sucked, only I didn't know it at the time. When you start out, you just don't know who is a good instructor and who isn't. I wish I hadn't wasted so much money with that instructor at that airport. I wish I had left that place eons earlier.
 
2. What leg of the pattern is it on? Downwind = definitely ok, Base = ok only if a very slow plane (and not an ultralight, they fly a tighter pattern), Final = never ok and kinda rude.
Click to expand...

A couple of months ago I was at a strange (to me) airport and pulled out for takeoff with a C-172 on downwind. The 172 went around, I guess because he thought I was in the way (not really). I felt kind of bad, since it could have been a student.

The biggest difference for me no as compared to my student days is that I am spoiled. I have a simple hand-held GPS that keeps me from having to keep my finger on a Sectional and lets me enjoy the trip more. Back then, no GPS and the borrowed C-150 I was flying did not have radios. The only advantage was you really learn pilotage and ded reckoning! I don't worry much now about getting lost.
 
I now know what needing more "right rudder" and "left aileron" means when landing in a left to right crosswind. :rofl:
 
Yeah, as a student pilot I was always fearful of making a mistake. Now that I'm a veteran seasoned pilot I am far less fearful, because I have the experience to recognize the mistakes when I make them again.
 
When I was student pilot couple days before flight I started checking weather and hoped it will be good VFR conditions. Now I do the same thing and hope to see IMC - I'm instrumental student now :)
 
I'm not intimidated by new experiences or new airports like I was in my student days. And if anything, I take more time planning crosscountry flights than when a student.
I know more. More about flying; more about weather; and more about ME. 20 years will do that to you.
 
Since I fly a RV7 I just go barreling into the pattern for an overhead break no matter what the traffic. After all I fly a hot piece of gear so I have the right away.:D Don
 
I no longer do manual DED reconing anymore (bad)
I now know what most of the buttons, knobs and switches do.
 
A month or so ago I took a pax for their first flight. They told me they wanted to learn what all the instruments meant. I said "yeah, me too." That was the wrong answer
 
yakdriver said:
Since I fly a RV7 I just go barreling into the pattern for an overhead break no matter what the traffic. After all I fly a hot piece of gear so I have the right away.:D Don
Click to expand...

All this talk of overhead breaks makes me want to ask you for an example (like on YouTube). The reason I ask is that I've been lucky enough to be at my airport every Saturday and it is REALLY BUSY. I could have sworn some Yaks said something on the CTAF about "break" or something and I think I looked up and saw them doing odd stuff. Wonder if they would do that on a busy Saturday with 5-10 planes in the pattern / departing / arriving / in the run up area / etc? Seems odd.
 
DavidWhite said:
A month or so ago I took a pax for their first flight. They told me they wanted to learn what all the instruments meant. I said "yeah, me too." That was the wrong answer
Click to expand...

OMG definitely the wrong answer, LOL. Though I recently had two passengers concerned when I didn't have / couldn't find the key (they were pilots). They joked I was not instilling any confidence into them.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
So the plane is super high on "final" and then flies a circle and then lands?
Click to expand...

Pretty much, yep.

One of the purposes is that a formation can arrive overhead and each aircraft can break out of the formation in a timed maneuver that sets them all up for a properly spaced landing...

These pilots added a pitch-up to the break.

 
Thanks, now I finally know what this is. And no, I am not trying to start ANOTHER fight about overhead breaks. I just hear about them so much and wanted to see one.
 
Kimberly, The overhead break works great for landing a formation and also to get slowed down to pattern speed in a high performance airplane. It does not however work well at uncontrolled fields with other airplanes in the pattern. But you have all kinds that only think of themselves and do it anyway. When I had the SNJ and the Yak it was fun to do but I only did it when the pattern was clear. Don
 
Steven Virgadamo remembers soloing in 1972 but cant remember much else of the experience other than the thrill and sense of satisfaction.

Getting old and memory failing..





kimberlyanne546 said:
I just posted this in another thread when speaking to a student pilot.

Do any of you remember the "old" you (the student pilot days)?

For example, on your first solo or solo cross countries, what did you used to do that you would do differently now?

Here is what I posted:



Here is the "old" me:

OMG there is another plane in the pattern, I will sit here on the ground and wait for him to land, no matter what, because what if my little airplane doesn't take off or I make the runway unusable for him!!!!

Here is the "pilot" me at the hold short line for the active runway at a nontowered airport, upon seeing and hearing other planes in the pattern coming in to land:

1. What type of aircraft is it? Is it faster or slower than me?

2. What leg of the pattern is it on? Downwind = definitely ok, Base = ok only if a very slow plane (and not an ultralight, they fly a tighter pattern), Final = never ok and kinda rude.

3. Can I safely make it onto the runway and into my upwind before the other pilot touches down? Is the other pilot doing a touch and go or is he going to put the plane away? If a touch and go, how soon will he catch up with me if I'm also doing pattern work? In this case sometimes it makes sense to wait since the 152 is slower than most.
Click to expand...
 
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