nervous

[fast99]

For those of you who started out nervous how long did it take to calm down. Am over it with the CFI in the plane. Flying solo still has me on edge. This spring and summer hasn't been the best year to learn. Been windy 7 out of 10 days and last week was no exception. Had a long cross-country scheduled. Turned around because the turbulence was more than I felt comfortable with.

Trying this flying thing for fun. CFI says I am a good pilot. Don't know if he says that to everybody. Haven't had a bad landing in at least the last 20. Thinking a few shorter solo flights to a towered airport might help. Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Racerx]

I think the nerves come from a bit of resignation attitude and thinking you're not ready.

If you're cfi thinks you're ready and can do it. You're ready and you'll be nervous until you do it. I was the same way practicing maneuvers solo. Doing them with the cfi was no big deal. Those steep turns solo had me on edge. Talk yourself up. Done it before, can do it now.

Take those short hops. Not even necessarily at a tower.

 

[Gary Ward]

Keep flying...
I was nervous, very nervous when I was learning to fly. I was sweating bullets for months during the hot summers. It took me 16 months and 2 hot summers to get my PPL nervous the whole time.
When I got my own plane I was nervous, I flew mostly by myself cause I was nervous.
Now 9 years later and 1500+ hrs I am less nervous than I was and lot's more confidante.
It will pass, keep flying.

 

[MikeNY]

Turned around because the turbulence was more than I felt comfortable with.

1. Instead of perceiving your action as solely due to being nervous, re-consider turnaround as ... sound ADM (Aeronautical decision-making).
Good to be conservative for student/low-time pilots; and remember, 'flight decisions for safety reasons' applies through ALL pilot certificate levels.

2. Unknowns may cause nervousness. To reduce/eliminate, more prep can help knowing what-to-expect.
For example, re-visit pre-flight weather briefing (while on the ground, before flight).
-was there an Airmet Tango for MOD TB? At what altitudes? Was LLWS also forecast?

3. Concerns about 'enroute' TB are appropriate, (airspeed adjustments for rough air), but perhaps moreso, consider "what were destination airport SFC winds?"
For example, enroute bumps at 5 or 6,000 -- vs. -- challenging landing conditions.

Building experience increases confidence, reducing nervousness.
Agreed. Remaining local, or shorter solo trips, should help.

 

[rhkennerly]

It will get better. But don't try to drive it under altogether.

Nervousness and a bit of anxiety help you to be a better pilot. Just survey the flying sites for tales of pilots who were not nervous enough: they didn't physically check and double-check the fuel & oil, the didn't preflight (or they'd found that gust lock), weather is something they'll pick up on the way...if they can hear the ATIS, wind conditions are assumed as good at their destination as they are at their departure, mountain waves sound surfey fun, annual inspections are a suggestion, or knowing the FARs is a bother you can look up at home. Use your anxiety to keep you safe. Check and double-check.

I've been flying awhile, but I still set a repeating 30-min timer on my watch to buzz to prompt me to positively check the fuel, intentionally perform a rough calculation, and think critically about how far I've still got to go.

On longer XCs I'm so nervous that I start watching the WX the week before. I plan the route and alternates routes, I know all the alternate airports and have them at my fingertips (old guy tip: if you are a VFR pilot, always make your alternate airport somewhere behind you that you've already flown through. Be careful about launching off into the unknown left or right, of course, if your primary is socking in). So I'm not just checking Forflight Wx, but Windy.com, the Pilot Decision Aids at the NWS, routing the flight on 10800-WXBrief, and finally calling and talking to an actual briefer.

You will gain confidence in your abilities with time. The solo XC is a lot more than mileage on a round-robin romp. It is, at heart, about developing the ability to trust yourself, your observations, your decisions, and your preparation. When you solo, you're a flyer. Once you've completed your solo XC, though, that's when you really become a pilot in your own right.

Go get it done.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Fly often. The more time between flights, the more likely to get nervous about the next one.

It gets better. Fly more.

Keep those “spidey senses” going, it’s survival instinct.

 

[fast99]

That makes me feel better.

CFI wanted to reschedule the long CC that day. Declined until I analyzed where my mind was at. The weather really through me. During the 20 or so minutes pre-flighting the plane went from dead calm to 15K with gusts. The decision to turn around ended up being a good one. 2 out of the 3 stops had stronger winds. Probably wouldn't have been pretty.

Will try to get more flights in but between the winds and availability not easy.

 

[Learnin’ to fly…]

I suspect you’ll find you get more comfortable with some things (solo, light turbulence) and potentially more nervous about other things as you experience them/understand them more (wind shear, imperfections of weather forecasts on long CC, the fun of substantial wind gusts on short final).

I canceled a 200 NM CC home yesterday because I didn’t like the wind at my departure airport (12G24 - 50% crosswind). Winds/weather at my destination were great. I was nervous that I would perform safely in an engine out on departure.

Some would have flown - either b/c they can make that landing under duress, or b/c they are not thinking about needing to make that landing under duress, or b/c they deem the probability of needing to make that landing as too low to worry about. To each their own.

I ignored the voice telling me I was being too cautious - and flew home today in beautiful conditions with a smile on my face.

Bottom line - that voice will change with time/experience - but it’s there to help you. Stick with it!

 

[Gilbert Buettner]

I canceled a 200 NM CC home yesterday because I didn’t like the wind at my departure airport (12G24 - 50% crosswind).

I am thinking about that "50% crosswind."

Do you mean 50 degrees? If you mean 50%, then I would interpret that to be a 45-degree crosswind, since 100% would be 90 degrees. There's a significant difference, of course, since a 90-degree crosswind at 24 knots would be far more challenging.

 

[Learnin’ to fly…]

Yeah - brain fart as I was typing. It was 260@12G24. Rwy 18. All(ish) crosswind.

Reality is - I could have left out the crosswind component from the story - because it didn’t even get that far in my consideration. For me, the 12G24 alone was enough for me to say ‘today’s not the day’.

 

[bluesideup]

...how long did it take to calm down...

Hi.
Define "calm down", if what you are looking for is an alpha / sleep like state, that should Never happen when you fly.
You should always be in a heighten alert state and always thinking, staying ahead of the airplane. Do you call that nervous? Yes, if you want, and that will get less and less intense as you gain more experience.
If you ever find yourself not transitioning in a higher state of alertness when you are about to fly a plane, it's time to quit. Something unpredictable is about to happen.
That calm / quiet state is different for different pilots. In my case I lay down on sofa watching some of these "leaders" on TV doing the things they do, and my pulse is around 80. As soon as I sit in the plane belted, all things planned out and just before take off, most of the time my pulse is around 60-64 but my alertness and my brain is in a totally different regime.
It does take a while to get to control that state but it will happen if you keep flying and improving.

About the flight. If you never experienced that type of conditions / WX, your CFI was correct to suggest to scrub it and it's always good to take the advice. He / she is likely to know what your level of preparation is, and it's not beneficial to you to try it, and lose more of your built in confidence.

That said, the CFI, or you, should have suggested to go together and experience it and next time you would have more confidence to do it alone.

Edit: Another possibility, idea I forgot about, is to have you fly single and have your CFI in another plane following, and communicating in flight. It will be a few more money but well you get a lot in return.

 

[fast99]

No I am not looking to taking a nap while flying. Main reason for the question is nervousness normal and should I say with it. Am usually not nervous at all. Took me by surprise. Taking a couple weeks off for a vacation. Will get back at it afterward.

Thanks for the suggestions and comments.

 

[Salty]

Is it just turbulence that makes you nervous?

If so, just fly enough for your body to think it's normal. Stop focusing on it. Keep your mind on flying, which is where it should be in the first place. Tell yourself you don't have time to worry about a bump, you have to fly the plane. Use a bump as an excuse to get ahead of the next stage of the flight if you don't have much to do right now. Check the weather at your destination. Put the next frequencies in the radio. Fine tune your mixture. Do something constructive that will make you more prepared. That should help you feel more comfortable. When you've done all that, double check it all, and so on, rinse and repeat.

I think the advise above could be used for most things that might make you nervous.

 

[iamtheari]

There are a lot of ways to manage nerves, some of which will be individual to the person. For your specific situation, here are the top three things I would do to get those nerves in check:

1. Fly with a CFI on the days when you aren't quite comfortable with the weather. You'll learn a lot. Sometimes, you'll learn how to judge during your approach whether the crosswind is too much for the airplane. Other times, you'll learn that there is a level of turbulence that will make any pilot feel like he must have said something unkind about Mike Tyson's mother, but that doesn't mean the plane will fall out of the sky. You might be sweaty, exhausted, aching, and just want to fall asleep on an A/C vent--but safe. And a good CFI will also teach you some tricks to escape those situations. There's usually another airport with a runway lined up better for the winds and there's usually smoother air at another altitude or airspeed.

2. Plan your alternates. Even if you don't fly that day, spend the time thinking about what you could do if you had taken off before the winds got bad and only then discovered that they exceeded your abilities. Is there a nearby airport with a courtesy car or rental car and a runway that you could have landed on within your comfort zone? How much earlier would you have had to start your flight if your destination was a must-be-there scenario and your backup plan was driving? (This is why I leave earlier to fly to a meeting than to drive: I try to plan enough time to get halfway there and have to turn back and drive instead.)

3. Practice as much as you safely can closer to the edge of your comfort zone, at your home airport and elsewhere. Someday you might find yourself fighting a headwind that wasn't in the forecast and needing to stop for fuel with a bit more wind than you've ever landed in before, and your experience making dozens of landings at numerous different airports with 10G20 crosswinds will drastically improve your chance at making a decent landing in the 15G25 conditions at the airport you need to land at to get fuel.

You might still be nervous sometimes, but you'll develop skills (both flying and personal) to manage your nerves and safely complete the flight.

 

[T Bird]

Honestly I think overcoming nervousness is as simple with flying as it is with anything else. Do it more. And then do it even more. Keep flying and it'll solve itself in time. How much time may be a bit different for everyone but just getting used to doing it a lot should go a long way here.

 

[SebIp]

Well lets see:

1) It's single engine, piston and you know that engine is reliable but also always an open question.
2) No matter how many times you practice force landing, you know the real thing is going to be a lot more tense.
3) How many hours on the airframe? Where I was taking lessons some of the 172s were well over 10,000. Sure they are well built but they also been doing a lot of training in those 10,000+
4) You are new to it and you know there's a lot you don't know.

So why wouldn't anyone be somewhat nervous? OF course you are.

For me the bumps got me till I just thought well it's live with them or stop and well I wasn't going to stop. Still each time I flight plan I go over all the possible problems. And I wonder constantly in flight. Doesn't stop me from enjoying it and I think it is a matter of being alert and safe over just assuming it's always going to be fine.

Finally, there is a part IMHO of flying single engine piston GA where you have to accept that it actually carries statistically a higher risk than driving a car. It is I think similar to riding a motocycle. That's something you have to accept I think. If not I know a number of people who stopped flying because they view the risk and too much.

How bad was the turbulence on your aborted XC? I lightly hit my head on the roof during my checkride. No problems I kept the plane on course under the hood and I hardly think about it except making sure I was at a safe speed for turbulence.

 

[chemgeek]

Depends on how you define "nervous." If "nervous" means a state of anxiety that is consumed with worry about low probability events and interfering with your ability to fly, then that needs to be worked on. Experience in different flying situations, and building confidence in your skill set and emergency training, can help alleviate that over time. If "nervous" means enhanced alertness for everything going on around you during flight, and being confident and prepared to take the appropriate actions should something occur out of the ordinary, then that is something that is healthy, and if it goes away you are too complacent.

My instructor did a ton of emergency training during my PPL instruction. A flight with him when he did not pull the power or disable some navigation or other electrical equipment was rare. (Pulling the fuel gauge and/or engine instruments fuses when I wasn't looking was particularly attention-getting.) This came in handy when I ran into real situations (mag failure, flap motor failure, vacuum failure, gyro failure, carb icing, spinner failure). My training provided me with the confidence to handle these in a routine and orderly manner.

 

[William Pete Hodges]

I don't know if this is affecting you, but it did affect me. The biggest thing that makes me nervous is not being able to find the airport. I was so worried about this during training that I got my instructor to have me approach our home airport from 8 different directions so I could get used to finding it from anywhere. That was before GPS. Now I use the extended runway centerline to help position my aircraft and identify the airport. That is especially useful for grass airstrips, but it works everywhere.

Another thing that helps is to look up NTSB reports on similar aircraft to yours and read what caused accidents to other people in your type of airplane. Some of them are really outrageous, but enlightening. One guy tried to take off with a cinder block tied to the plane! My wife and I did this regularly for about a year. We found that staying out of bad weather is one thing, and NOT RUNNING OUT FUEL is the other. Those 2 items make up over 90% of the accidents.

With the weather tools available outside of aviation, it is easy to predict bad or marginal VFR weather well in advance, which means it is easy to predict good VFR weather days about a week or so in advance. Commit to flying in good weather AND learn to land in a 12 knot crosswind. That takes care of the first item.

Always plan your flights to land with a 1 hour fuel reserve or more and manage your fuel tanks so that you use that fuel evenly in the tanks depending on your configuration. That should take care of item two.

The last suggestion I have is to learn and practice short field landing techniques. Knowing your limit in short field work gives you more landing areas to choose from, and gives you alternative landing fields in case you need it. Try to get good at this, because you never know when you might need it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gary Ward]

I don't know if this is affecting you, but it did affect me. The biggest thing that makes me nervous is not being able to find the airport. I was so worried about this during training that I got my instructor to have me approach our home airport from 8 different directions so I could get used to finding it from anywhere. That was before GPS. Now I use the extended runway centerline to help position my aircraft and identify the airport. That is especially useful for grass airstrips, but it works everywhere.

Another thing that helps is to look up NTSB reports on similar aircraft to yours and read what caused accidents to other people in your type of airplane. Some of them are really outrageous, but enlightening. One guy tried to take off with a cinder block tied to the plane! My wife and I did this regularly for about a year. We found that staying out of bad weather is one thing, and NOT RUNNING OUT FUEL is the other. Those 2 items make up over 90% of the accidents.

With the weather tools available outside of aviation, it is easy to predict bad or marginal VFR weather well in advance, which means it is easy to predict good VFR weather days about a week or so in advance. Commit to flying in good weather AND learn to land in a 12 knot crosswind. That takes care of the first item.

Always plan your flights to land with a 1 hour fuel reserve or more and manage your fuel tanks so that you use that fuel evenly in the tanks depending on your configuration. That should take care of item two.

The last suggestion I have is to learn and practice short field landing techniques. Knowing your limit in short field work gives you more landing areas to choose from, and gives you alternative landing fields in case you need it. Try to get good at this, because you never know when you might need it.

Hope this helps.

I trained in 2015, the plane had a garmin 530 but I was not shown how to use it much until after my solo XCs.
Mostly what I was shown was how to use direct to toward the end of my training.
I did all my flight training/planning on a chart with a pencil. My CFII was there of course that day and if he sent me out then I didn't worry about it much(the X wind landings). He was 69 and very experienced. I flew my planned headings and looked for landmarks as I went. I found all three airports that day. Yes it is a relief to see the airport. I landed and taxied back to the start of the runway and took off for my next airport.
I did use flight following so it was tough to get very lost. My instructor questioned me if I actually landed at the airports since I was back so fast he said. I didn't even turn off the plane during any solo XC. And we never did either when the CFII was with me.
Sure I was worried a lot about the wind at first and still do but after enough flying you will be less nervous. I am always at a heightened alertness/nervousness when I fly. It is normal for me. Don't know about others'? I sleep like after work before I fly so I can be fresh 90% of the time. I do 90% of my flying in the evenings.
Love showing this picture as it might have been the first picture I ever took while training. It was during my long XC flight. I remember seeing Dayton Ohio to the south a little and what do you know that is where my pencil line was drawn. lol
It took me a months to be less nervous to take this picture on my solo XC. Notice my headings and altitude was going out of wack when I stopped flying the plane to take this picture.

I flew right over Wright-Pat air force base with flight following.

 

[GeorgeC]

For those of you who started out nervous how long did it take to calm down.

In retrospect, maybe a couple hundred hours ish? Then the clock started over when I started flying tailwheel. It will probably start over again if I ever start flying in IMC.

You'll likely be trained to the point of "good enough" rather than "good". After you get your ticket, it will be on you to fly frequently enough to actually attain and maintain proficiency. There will be the frustrations of learning plateaus, or even regressions, as the rust forms quickly when you're new. The twin sirens of overconfidence and complacency may then cause you to scare yourself. Humbled and made aware of your limitations, you may then begin to relax...

 

[Shawn]

Main reason for the question is nervousness normal and should I say with it. Am usually not nervous at all. Took me by surprise.

That is a good thing...you want to be nervous and training will help with when you should be nervous vs when you should be worried.

Nervous helps make sure you are diligent on your checklists, procedures, and evaluation of conditions and skillset...you don't want to loose that.

The few times when I am not nervous is when things go wrong. Complacency kills.

 

[Crashnburn]

That is a good thing...you want to be nervous and training will help with when you should be nervous vs when you should be worried.

Nervous helps make sure you are diligent on your checklists, procedures, and evaluation of conditions and skillset...you don't want to loose that.

The few times when I am not nervous is when things go wrong. Complacency kills.

Right. My Spidey Sense kicks in when it seems things are going too well or are too easy.