Is training harder then the real thing??

mulligan

mulligan

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Mulligan
I was curious to know what others have experienced. I am only on my 3rd training session. The first was discovery, the 2nd was basic turns and maintaining heading and altitude. The 3rd was this am and we did stalls and 180 turns. We had 30 knot winds and it was pretty exciting up there. Next lesson is Monday and we are working on S turns from visual reference and box turns then Friday is scheduled for landings.

My instructor says I am progressing very nicely and feels comfortable with our pace. My question is does normal flight seem like this much work or is it because we are constantly learning and changing and moving? When we are moving in a direction things seem very manageable. But when we are constantly turning and changing and trying to keep up with everything it seems like an awful lot to keep up with.

I really enjoy flying so far and want to continue to enjoy it. My biggest concern is how will a newer plane perform and fly compared to the 1969 172 that is very used and kept to basic minimum standards? I am thinking of getting a SR22-G5 or a Cessna 206H which both have glass panels and some auto pilot assistance. Will these make things feel a little more manageable or is it basically the same feel of flight. Trust me, I don't mind, im worried that my wife and kids will though!!
 
mulligan said:
I was curious to know what others have experienced. I am only on my 3rd training session. The first was discovery, the 2nd was basic turns and maintaining heading and altitude. The 3rd was this am and we did stalls and 180 turns. We had 30 knot winds and it was pretty exciting up there. Next lesson is Monday and we are working on S turns from visual reference and box turns then Friday is scheduled for landings.

My instructor says I am progressing very nicely and feels comfortable with our pace. My question is does normal flight seem like this much work or is it because we are constantly learning and changing and moving? When we are moving in a direction things seem very manageable. But when we are constantly turning and changing and trying to keep up with everything it seems like an awful lot to keep up with.

I really enjoy flying so far and want to continue to enjoy it. My biggest concern is how will a newer plane perform and fly compared to the 1969 172 that is very used and kept to basic minimum standards? I am thinking of getting a SR22-G5 or a Cessna 206H which both have glass panels and some auto pilot assistance. Will these make things feel a little more manageable or is it basically the same feel of flight. Trust me, I don't mind, im worried that my wife and kids will though!!
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Wow, you'll do okay. Don't worry about the high workload while you are learning. It does get much easier. Sometimes instructors will limit the flights in high winds so as not to put students off too much. Hang in there, you will be a better pilot for learning in these conditions.
 
Give it a bit longer then come back and re-read your OP and you'll have your answer. Everything is new to you right now, once you build up some muscle memory on the whys and hows of stuff you'll do them without thinking so you can focus on the things you need to focus on. Flying gets easier once you aren't thinking about how to do EVERYTHING. Relax and concentrate on what your CFI is telling you, he's got you progressing through things appropriately.

I think you'll find that most planes will fly all about the same, of course there will be differences but nothing that can't be figured out pretty well within a couple hours of flight time.
 
My experience: It's overwhelming at first. Everything is new, you are learning the plane, the equipment, the regs, the CFI, everything. It gets easier as more and more of what you do becomes automatic.

Late, your CFI might make things very difficult for you, mine did. Very tight tolerances, significant simulated emergencies, all sort of things to get you ready for the checkride. The harder you train, the easier the checkride is.

Embrace the difficult, it makes everything else easier.

As far as transitioning later, think of it like jumping into a new rental car. Each one is different, but you don't need to relearn how to drive. Similar to moving into a higher end airplane - you will know how it works, but the different characteristics and equipment will require extra training and getting used to.
 
You don't have any muscle memory yet.

I recall my CFI saying "Clearly you can't turn a plane and make a radio call at the same time so do one then the other"

All that "work" you are doing now will just become "flying" and right about the time this transition happens, your instructor will get out of the plane and send you up alone for a few laps.
 
Think back to when you were learning to drive as a teenager. That was easier, because you had that big black asphalt stripe out the windshield to follow.

The more you do it, the easier it gets. For me, after eight years, the fun and excitement have not worn off yet. I am, however, more able to enjoy it.
 
Its all coordination and muscle memory. Building muscle between your ears and then training that muscle to coordinate with the muscles in the rest of your body takes a little practice.
 
I used to feel the same way. It was difficult even thinking about making radio calls, looking for traffic, flying a pattern and listening to my CFI all at the same time. That's why I did it one at a time. All of it now comes naturally (except for CFIs who talk too much :p)...
 
It gets easier. You'll get the muscle memory down and it will be like breathing.
 
timwinters said:
Yes!

Well, that is, until you have a real emergency. Then the training was easy by comparison. :)

That's why you train!
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:yeahthat:

You will probably find that it's like a roller coaster. You'll struggle to get up a steep grade, then coast down for awhile, then struggle back up again, until eventually it sort of levels off with minor ups and downs. But one day after you get your license, when it all goes to hell, you'll find you know how to cope because you trained so well.
 
You have to give it some more time,everything is new to you. It will get easier with practice.
 
Tell your CFI you want to do dual x-country soon. Pick an airport half an hour away, fly there, land. Fly back, land.

Don't bother doing all the chart and pencil crap, just fly the GPS over there and back.

That's what "real flying" will feel like.

Better yet, ask someone who's already doing it for a ride along since it sounds like you may not have done it.

Also. NEVER NEVER NEVER take a newbie up and say "here's what I learned" Stalls, steeps, turns around a point. NO.
 
It definitely gets easier. After a while it becomes fighting complacency is the toughest fight. I can just get in my plane and go, almost as easily as getting into my car. The garage door is bigger for the plane though. If you keep it on the ramp, just hop in and go! OOPS, dont forget to do all that other stuff, even though you just flew it yesterday and it was fine.

I guess I have to tighten up my preflight. I do sort of preflight it when I push it, by hand out the hangar. Not a problem so far except some minor maintenance. Tires, brakes, oil changes, replace manifold pressure gauge, replace panel rubber bushing/bolts and some minor stuff Ive forgotten.
 
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wilkersk said:
Its all coordination and muscle memory. Building muscle between your ears and then training that muscle to coordinate with the muscles in the rest of your body takes a little practice.
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Exactly. It's like anything else: learning a musical instrument, learning to drive, or whatever. At some point your senses, your brain, and your muscles just "get it," and things that you have to think your way through at this point become automatic.

Consider when you learned to drive a car. You had to learn how hard to push the gas and brakes to move and stop, how much to turn the steering wheel to effect a turn, where to start a turn and where to start recovering (straightening out), and so forth; but at some point all these things became more automatic. You don't have to think through every possible step in making a turn. You just make the turn.

When I first started flying ultralight trikes I found them overwhelming (even though they're actually easier to fly than airplanes once you get the hang of them). They require more constant control input than airplanes do because of their essential aerodynamics, their slow speed, and their light weight. But that, too becomes automatic after a while, just like the constant tiny steering corrections you make when driving a car on a freeway.

What it comes down to is that right now you have to think through even the tiniest details of every maneuver. That will change with experience, and you'll be able to focus on the big picture of what you're doing. Your senses, brain, and muscles will already have the details down pat.

Rich
 
mulligan said:
I was curious to know what others have experienced. I am only on my 3rd training session. The first was discovery, the 2nd was basic turns and maintaining heading and altitude. The 3rd was this am and we did stalls and 180 turns. We had 30 knot winds and it was pretty exciting up there. Next lesson is Monday and we are working on S turns from visual reference and box turns then Friday is scheduled for landings.

My instructor says I am progressing very nicely and feels comfortable with our pace. My question is does normal flight seem like this much work or is it because we are constantly learning and changing and moving? When we are moving in a direction things seem very manageable. But when we are constantly turning and changing and trying to keep up with everything it seems like an awful lot to keep up with.

I really enjoy flying so far and want to continue to enjoy it. My biggest concern is how will a newer plane perform and fly compared to the 1969 172 that is very used and kept to basic minimum standards? I am thinking of getting a SR22-G5 or a Cessna 206H which both have glass panels and some auto pilot assistance. Will these make things feel a little more manageable or is it basically the same feel of flight. Trust me, I don't mind, im worried that my wife and kids will though!!
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Training by nature is always more difficult regardless because we have to learn. One thing that is a major point of learning that should be mastered because it is the basis of all flight is proper trim. Every time you are going to change airspeed, you want to trim so the plane flies that airspeed when you are not applying pressure to the yoke. When you are on final for example, you trim for 1.3 Vso, then adjust the vertical glide path with the throttle. Pick an aim point just shy of the threshold, and adjust the power so that spot neither rises or falls in the wind screen. If it rises, you need to add power, if it falls you need to decrease power. As you come over the fence you add a couple of flicks of trim to slow the plane to 1.1 Vso and the effect of this will round out the plane and slow your descent as you come to the threshold where you reduce the power and hold that attitude and let the plane settle in. You find the real Vso with your CFI by doing air work and noting your dirty power off stall speed. You then go into the POH/AFM to the IAS-CAS table and solve for CAS, multiply that by 1.1, 1.3,& 1.5, go back into the table and solve for IAS. Next go do some slow flight and find the power settings to maintain level flight at 1.5 with the first notch/10° of flaps. This is the power and trim setting you use entering down wind, and if you know what one should be and set it, finding the other is simplified. You want to then transition to 1.3Vso and full flaps and remember approximately how much trim you needed to give it to affect the change, then set the power to get a 600fpm descent on the VSI. This is your beginning approach power setting that you set when turning base to final and dropping in the last of the flaps. At this point you watch your aim point in the windshield and correct for the headwind component by adjusting power to stabilize it in the windshield. Next add trim to slow the plane to 1.1 Vso (note: You will be below the bottom of the white arc at this pint at most training flight weights since the arcs and all numbers unless noted ate calculated at max gross weight.) and see where the VSI ends up, anywhere around 300fpm and you won't need to add power.

When you learn how to manage energy in three dimensions, then it becomes second nature. The problem that adults have learning to fly is that the learning process one uses at first to gain dimensional perception and muscle memory functions is a toddler learning process that we are pretty much done with using by 5, and the further you are from that age, the harder it is to bring that process back. That's why it's easier for an adult to start with numbers and procedures and develope feel than start with feel and develop numbers.

As for an SR-22, I like them, you will have no problems transitioning. Although glass panels have a learning curve, it's not insurmountable and the benefits far outweigh the effort.
 
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If you get the SR22-G5 (I own one), it will do most everything but takeoff and land so you have that to look forward to. You aren't getting the Pilots license to actually fly an airplane are you? j/k.. The 172 is much easier to learn on. Things happen much faster in an SR22.
 
But when we are constantly turning and changing and trying to keep up with everything it seems like an awful lot to keep up with.
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Everything is easy when you know how...it is the learning that is hard and that is what you are doing now, learning.

I have 11 hours of flight time and already things seem "easier." It is not because the flying has gotten easier it is because I have learned: taxiing, the radios, procedures, etc., etc. It will get easier for you as well as you learn.

Once along my Internet travels I read that PPL training is like drinking water from a fire hose...I think there is a lot of truth to that.

Hang in there and this new world of flying will open up to you.
 
As your aviation career/hobby goes on you have more of a base foundation and understanding to learn new things which makes it easier! My personal experience is that as my flying career has gone on it has only become easier to learn and progress and succeed!
 
It gets a whole lot easier with time.

Before I soloed, I struggled with just flying the airplane around the pattern. It felt impossible at the time to juggle so many things at once — the radio calls, lowering the flaps at the right times, hitting the right airspeeds, not to mention the final moments before touchdown, which is a whole struggle in itself. I thought "there's no way I can do all of this." It was totally overwhelming.

And then, all of a sudden, it clicked. And shortly after it clicked, I was cleared to solo.

The next big challenge was flight planning. That takes a HUGE amount of time and detail when everything has to be done on paper like it's the 1920s.

Even after I got my license and could use ForeFlight in the cockpit, I continued to do a lot of planning on paper before every cross country. I wanted all the frequencies, headings and runway diagrams printed out for easy access, so I'd spend at least an hour or two planning every cross country flight.

Now that I've had my license for a year and have logged about 156 hours, I'm just BARELY getting comfortable flying without my special little planning forms on paper.

Just last week I decided on a whim to fly up to Hot Springs, Arkansas and then down to Longview, Texas to see family. I prefighted the plane, checked the fuel, got my weather briefing, plugged the destination into GPS and off I went — no paper pacifiers this time — which felt like a big step to me. I just followed the magenta line on the plane's GPS and looked up frequencies and taxi charts in Foreflight. It was super easy.

So yes, it's normal to feel totally overwhelmed during training. And yes, it gets far easier with experience. Flying is never going to be as easy as turning the key in your car and driving away (if you do it safely) ... but that feeling of drinking from a firehose definitely gets better after the checkride.
 
Yes.

But then again being turned loose for the first time is not a time to relax.
 
Not only does it (flying the airplane itself) get much easier after training, it actually gets easier during training too as your skills improve. Controlling the airplane will become the easiest part pretty soon. It will probably shock you how soon that happens.

Training is like an onion - it makes you cry like a baby. No wait, wrong analogy. It's the layers thingy. As you gain adequacy in one skill, they layer on another skill. The workload remains elevated throughout training because there is always something new being added on. Once you're done with training, it begins to become more and more familiar and routine. Or to say it another way, after primary training you add new skills more gradually so you don't constantly feel behind.

Your brain develops strong neural pathways for things you do often. In the early days, you don't know what to expect or what to focus on or even what is important and what isn't. Eventually you will learn to zero in on the important stuff. All that will happen.

In the meantime, just remember to enjoy it all! :D
 
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Mulligan, look back in time and ask yourself this: Was throwing a ball and actually getting it to go where you wanted it to harder until after you learned how and had some practice?
 
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