Just feel like venting

[evapilotaz]

In '82 the 152 was $33/wet and instructor was $14. I did my PPL in 41.8 and 20 hrs of that was solo!

I had 4 instructors because they kept leaving for better jobs. Transition from instructor to instructor tacked on the hours.

 

[coloradobluesky]

GPS has made navigation trivial.

There was plenty to complain about back then too.

Buy a plane. Then you become the boss. Until then, youre just somebody's lacky.

 

[docmirror]

I learned in a 55hp Quad City Challenger, didn't stop me from crossing the Sierra.

You win the internet today. Big - brass - ones. Did you have a parachute? Meh - nevermind, not sure if a chute would even help.

 

[Palmpilot]

Buy a plane. Then you become the boss. Until then, youre just somebody's lacky.

If a rental operation made me feel like a lackey, I would find someplace else to rent from.

 

[Kelvin]

Nope. By the time they reach 250 hrs. unless they had really bad flight instructors they should have all this nailed down by now. Local flying teaches you little. Cross country is the meat and potatoes of being a pilot. And the longer XC, the better. Why do you fly if you're staying local? Might as well drive. The education gained by going far away from your comfort zone is invaluable. Different terrain, approach controls, airports, weather all rounds you out into a better pilot. Flying VFR or IFR doesn't matter. Its something new and a challenge to cope.

Have to agree as well. I am a old man that got my PPC in a glass airplane...that I owned. I flew to Maine from NC via the Hudson River Corridor with about 115 hours. That will make a pilot out of you in a hurry.

 

[Hank S]

I made my first 350 nm trip (each way) with less than 100 hours. A year later, I hit 200 hours on vacation, flying 1320 nm to Yellowstone as a VFR pilot. Stopped early one time each way, once for a long lunch and once for an early night. Learned lots, including fun things like stretching multiple sectionals out on a 12" wide counter in a motel lobby and using magazines as a straight edge to draw the line with.

All I can say is that the wing leveler made it much easier. Visibility out that way is tremendous, I looked miles past airports just because I could see that far! Crossing the Mississippi on the way home, we got back into normal haze and 8-10 mile visibility. The trip was a lot of fun, planning, flying, flightseeing and running around on the ground.

Get a plane, go places. Have fun. Fly safe!

 

[old cfi]

To do that you'd need airplanes you're allowed to spin and instructors willing to spin one themselves. You might be surprised at how challenging that can be in some locations.

I am more than willing to let students spin an airplane if they want to, but don't make them do it.



I agree that doing cross countries, especially longer ones, will provide a person with new challenges and make a person cope with them. I do not believe that is all there is to being a pilot however, and there are skills that can be learned locally that will never be learned by cruising straight and level for hours on end to get to a destination and make one landing, then turn around and come home. I'd honestly argue that aerobatic training, tailwheel training, spin training, and short "low n slow" cross countries using pilotage will likely produce a more well rounded pilot than one that has a bunch of cross country hours at altitude in a modern GPS equipped airplane.


Different people want to learn to fly for different reasons though. I try to tailor lessons to the kind of flying they want to do post PPL so they are proficient in those areas.



I think the agonizing over technical details is more of a personality thing. I've run across a lot of people who really don't want to know or be hassled by the rules and the technical details, all they want to do is fly an airplane and go where they want to. I've also worked with some people who will spend hours asking questions about every little detail about a flight or what to do in a certain hypothetical situation, to the point of paralysis and fear of doing the wrong thing.

I learned to fly in the last 10 years, so I don't know what it was like before that but there definitely is the expectation that you'll know a little bit about a lot of different subjects (aircraft systems, weather, aeromedical factors, airspace, etc.). That doesn't mean that you need to be an expert at everything, you just need to know enough to keep yourself out of trouble and know where to find the right answer if you don't know.

Never mentioned anything about going XC with a GPS. Didn't have those gadgets when I was flying. Simply navigated by VORs and NDBs and plain pilotage with sectionals (IFR - I follow roads and rivers). Today's XC flying is duck soup compared to that. In flying locally, you reach a saturation point. That doesn't happen XC. Try flying 2,000-3,000 nm with landings and overnights at various airports, like say 4 or 5, and see how much is learned. And I'm talking 172 like aircraft, not a pressurized high-flying glass cockpit equipped machine. Since you started flying in the last 10 yrs you missed out on all this.

 

[old cfi]

I made my first 350 nm trip (each way) with less than 100 hours. A year later, I hit 200 hours on vacation, flying 1320 nm to Yellowstone as a VFR pilot. Stopped early one time each way, once for a long lunch and once for an early night. Learned lots, including fun things like stretching multiple sectionals out on a 12" wide counter in a motel lobby and using magazines as a straight edge to draw the line with.

All I can say is that the wing leveler made it much easier. Visibility out that way is tremendous, I looked miles past airports just because I could see that far! Crossing the Mississippi on the way home, we got back into normal haze and 8-10 mile visibility. The trip was a lot of fun, planning, flying, flightseeing and running around on the ground.

Get a plane, go places. Have fun. Fly safe!

My first solo was exhilarating to say the least. Think everyone feels the same. I'm a pilot!!! But that long 300 nm solo XC was the real jewel. To think at 32 hrs total time I could do that, and not get lost, was a feeling I'll never forget, all 5.2 hrs of it. Thought the first solo was great until I did the long XC!

 

[woodchucker]

I imagine that 300 nm round trip xc was quite beneficial in the old days using _______ equipment. As has been pointed out, pilots can easily follow the magenta line from point to point these days.

During my oral the DPE didn't really refer to my flight plan at all, but rather the current emphasis on scenarios, which he covered quite heavily. I was wrong on almost everything, but he talked me through it and the oral was more like a discussion learning experience, which I appreciated.

My post PPL experience?

I flew a few long XC flights on the magenta line. Hated it. Went back to flying with the paper chart in my lap and the iPad on the floor as a backup. Loving it!

A good cfi will incorporate all relevant factors into training.

 

[nddons]

My first solo was exhilarating to say the least. Think everyone feels the same. I'm a pilot!!! But that long 300 nm solo XC was the real jewel. To think at 32 hrs total time I could do that, and not get lost, was a feeling I'll never forget, all 5.2 hrs of it. Thought the first solo was great until I did the long XC!

I felt the exact same way. Leaving the nest was one thing. Navigating my way across the horizon and back, all alone, and seeing your home airport appear where it's supposed to be after many hours of flying was the most amazing part of my PPL training.

 

[Anthony]

Back in the day (not sure exactly when it changed) your long private XC was a minimum of three 100-mile legs.

Yep, and that was a HUGE barrier for many of the student pilots I knew when I got my ticket over 21 years ago. Many of the people in my ground school class got hung up on that one. For me, in a C-152 it felt like a full day of flying. We had no GPS, and relied on dead reckoning, pilotage, and VOR's. Our equipment was right out of the 70's and looked it. I am surprised it even worked sometimes.

Now, many students learn in newer 172's or other nicer aircraft than what we had. Not, all I know. Most of those planes may be flying. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[old cfi]

I liked those days. Sure, XC was much more challenging than what today's modern aircraft offer but think then a student pilot really earned that PPL rating. Some of those skills are lost now and wonder what happens to the "modern" day trained pilot when all his gadgets decide to crap out. Can he still find his way? Until they stop printing them, I'll always have a sectional and enroute chart aboard just in case. And the plotter and E6B will safely be tucked in the bottom of the flight bag.

 

[Hank S]

I felt the exact same way. Leaving the nest was one thing. Navigating my way across the horizon and back, all alone, and seeing your home airport appear where it's supposed to be after many hours of flying was the most amazing part of my PPL training.

I still feel like that coming home from a long trip. A short jaunt of 100-150 nm is like playing in the backyard, as long as weather cooperates. Heading out several states away, and getting back when you wanted to, seeing the home field rightmost there where it belongs, is exhilarating!

Sometimes I'm very aware of the magic and privilege, soaring above the crowd, watching traffic jams inching along and roads disappearing off to the side. Rolling hills, peaceful hidden lakes and glorious sunsets . . . It can be magical! I was amazed just recently after flying the approach back in, when I looked back to where we came from at the gray cloudscape. Freedom, responsibility, practice and more practice.