I started training in 2007. Life interfered after around 5 hours and I had to stop. I'm considering restarting again and while I know that the enthusiasm for flying will push most people here to say to go for it I have some concerns.
My memories of my flight training are mostly that it was boring. Preflight was OK. Taxi and runup OK. Takeoff was interesting every time because I had to be doing something. Climbout just meant to trim. Cruise meant trim and adjust power. And then it's hands off and do nothing. Or almost nothing. Sit there at the controls and monitor gauges that are normal, look for other airplanes in a clear sky, and large chunks of time doing/saying nothing. Then maybe 10 minutes of things like turns around a point/across a road and 2-3 stalls. After that, head home, trim for pattern altitude, do the landing checklist, land, and shut down/tie down. Get billed for an hour and "we'll see you next week."
This was at a local Cessna Training center flight school with a good reputation at an uncontrolled field. I didn't get to the point where I was using the radio but that's OK I never figured out how to use it anyway. Too many knobs and stuff that I didn't know the function of.
My Cessna coursework was OK but there were things in the first few chapters I just wasn't understanding. Mostly it was the taxiway and ground at major airports stuff but there were a couple of other things like pattern entry techniques (still have no idea how to do this other than just fly alongside the field and then turn base/final).
I felt more like a cash cow than a student. I met no one other than the cashier and my CFI. (Well I did talk to the mech 1x because the C172 needed a quart of oil.) Barely talked to my CFI before, during, or after the flight.
So, after almost 5 hours in a small space with an expert pilot and instructor I felt bored and that I'd learned very little and had some anxiety about things I should have been understanding. Is this how it's supposed to be?
Maybe I need to go fly with a different instructor? The bad part is that my old CFI is also the local DPE. And, while he should be OK with me training with a different instructor, I'd be embarrassed if we ran into each other (or he was the examiner for my PPL checkride) and he remembered me.
So, what say you? Should I "go for it" again? Or just let the dream die as just something not for me? I'm already 55 and if I pass on this again, it will be for the last time.
My memories of my flight training are mostly that it was boring. Preflight was OK. Taxi and runup OK. Takeoff was interesting every time because I had to be doing something. Climbout just meant to trim. Cruise meant trim and adjust power. And then it's hands off and do nothing. Or almost nothing. Sit there at the controls and monitor gauges that are normal, look for other airplanes in a clear sky, and large chunks of time doing/saying nothing. Then maybe 10 minutes of things like turns around a point/across a road and 2-3 stalls. After that, head home, trim for pattern altitude, do the landing checklist, land, and shut down/tie down. Get billed for an hour and "we'll see you next week."
This was at a local Cessna Training center flight school with a good reputation at an uncontrolled field. I didn't get to the point where I was using the radio but that's OK I never figured out how to use it anyway. Too many knobs and stuff that I didn't know the function of.
My Cessna coursework was OK but there were things in the first few chapters I just wasn't understanding. Mostly it was the taxiway and ground at major airports stuff but there were a couple of other things like pattern entry techniques (still have no idea how to do this other than just fly alongside the field and then turn base/final).
I felt more like a cash cow than a student. I met no one other than the cashier and my CFI. (Well I did talk to the mech 1x because the C172 needed a quart of oil.) Barely talked to my CFI before, during, or after the flight.
So, after almost 5 hours in a small space with an expert pilot and instructor I felt bored and that I'd learned very little and had some anxiety about things I should have been understanding. Is this how it's supposed to be?
Maybe I need to go fly with a different instructor? The bad part is that my old CFI is also the local DPE. And, while he should be OK with me training with a different instructor, I'd be embarrassed if we ran into each other (or he was the examiner for my PPL checkride) and he remembered me.
So, what say you? Should I "go for it" again? Or just let the dream die as just something not for me? I'm already 55 and if I pass on this again, it will be for the last time.
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