Just finished 1st lesson and having 2nd thoughts

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Alberto Garcia

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I'm a 27 yr old male thinking of going after a career in aviation, I'm new to aviation I have no one in my family in aviation nor do I have any friends in aviation. I decided to go after my ppl after months of procrastination and after a discovery flight! In my intro flight the instructor let me most of the flying & it was awesome I loved it but when I went for my 1st lesson (different school&instructor) idk what happen but I felt so saturated with info, got a little nauseous at the end & was so exhausted. All I could think of is how am I ever going to learn all of this. I just felt so overwhelmed & started to second guess myself "is this really for me?" My question is are these feeling normal? Anybody go tru this? I was thinking of not even scheduling a 2nd lesson! Any advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
 
Absolutely that is how you feel. I puked my first flight lol. On top of getting that sick I felt behind the airplane the whole time. Think of it this way. You’re speaking a weird language with a new alphabet, driving 3 dimensionally, it’s basically a complete new world. As you master each small thing it adds up and before you know it you are just doing things right without thinking. I definitely felt overwhelmed after my first few lessons.


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Many peoples bodies have a reaction to the first couple of flights. Give it a chance. It’s not a video game. :)

This time of year, heat can make things a bit more uncomfortable, too.

It’s not exactly the norm to be flinging oneself around in a chair in the sky. Might take a little getting used to.

But it’s pretty fun! :)

On the second flight your body will know what’s coming and you’ll be less mentally overwhelmed by the physical sensation also.
 
Normal reaction. Anyone can learn to fly, but not everyone will. Stick to it, it will begin to fall in place.

Ask your instructor what you can do to prepare. I found that a lot of the overwhelming stuff happened because I wasn't ready. "Chair flying" is a great help.
 
Have you done any ground school yet? How was your CFI (instructor) at the new school? Did he go over what you would be doing before you started the lesson?

I'm also a student, though I grew up with a father that was a pilot, and I flew with him as a kid it has been 50 years (I'm old), and I love flying, but have a tendancy to get a little queasy, and after just one hour lessons, I'm also exhausted often. There is a LOT.
I took my first lesson, and a few more, while studying, but quickly decided that I had to concentrate on getting through ground school before doing a lot more flying. I couldn't do both as they both required a lot of study (after my flight, debrief, go over what we did, what I missed, etc. as well as learn for Ground school), also my ground school is in a second language for me, norwegian so it was a little difficult.
Anyway, learning about phsyics/aerodynamics, the controls, the mechanics of an airplane especially helped me. I think it helped me make better use of my flying lessons. Still my instructor throws a lot at me, and stresses me a bit.

I don't know how you experienced learning to drive a car, but (specially stick shift) I can remember feeling overwhelmed with that when I first learned, for a while. It's similar, but an airplane has a lot of more tricky concepts.

Mainly, just thinking, from how you described your discovery flight, seems like you loved flying. Maybe give yourself X number of hours, or lessons, before making a decision? One day flying when you feel you can't do anything right can get your down, another day when things go well or better, and you can be on top of the world! It does help to know the principles, explains a lot of what you do in the cockpit, and why.

I took a break recently after a particularly rough lesson, and also have noe been feeling "sharp", lack of energy, and too damned hot here at the moment, I'm not up for baking in the cockpit during all the ground operations. Sort of gearing up to push again soon.

Also, and old mans' advice, maybe put aside for the time being the thought of a "carreer in aviation", who needs the extra pressure or baggage of that hanging over your decisions? It colors all your experiences ("do I want to do THIS for a living for the rest of my life??" after each good or bad lesson) and might make you filter that putting too much emphasis on each lesson. First, maybe see if you think it is fun, exciting, worth the time and energy and is for you. Later on you may find you just like flying for recreation, OR you want to go further and make it a living.

Whatever you decide, good luck!
 
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I tell people with a new job to not evaluate it after a day or two, new people, new environment, new everything. One has to give things a chance.

It’s the same with flying. There have been those that switch instructors or schools to keep things going, not that you need to do that at this point. It should be the real basic stuff starting out. I never got to try the landing pattern until the 3rd flight, back in the day.

I wouldn’t even worry if it’s ‘right for you’ or not at this point. Also tell your instructor how you feel. You need to do it enough to know what you’re dealing with. As mentioned, supplement with self study, reading, videos, whatever.
 
Of course you were exhausted. First your were given a lot of data to process, then you were given a lot of sensory inputs to process. Most people cannot do simple addition and subtraction afterward.

I tell my students I need them to give me brain time. Replay the entire flight, evaluate what they were told and all the inputs they made in the flight controls and the results. It helps a lot in learning flying.
 
When learning to fly it should not be too much of an overload on you. If so the instructor needs to back off to allow you to understand what you are doing before moving on. Each person learns at a different pace. When I was learning my instructor moved to the next step after I concord the previous one. Training becomes easier and faster and more enjoyable. Talk to your instructor and tell him how you feel. He/she may give you some advice or they may adjust their training.
 
As others have said, totally normal. In the past, I have had instructors who talked all the time, so much that I felt overwhelmed and I did not have time to think. Before navigating and communicating, the first step is aviating. Start by just flying the airplane, leave the communications to the instructor, and focus on speed, attitude, just getting a feeling of the airplane. Practice taking off, flying the pattern, deploying flaps and landing. When you have that pretty much figured out, add more exercises, communications, etc. And it's okay to discuss with your instructor about your difficulties.

Hang in there, one day everything will click and you will be able to just enjoy the flight!
 
Something that still amazes me after many years of instructing is someone that feels as you do. After awhile (hours will vary) you'll be taxing straight on the taxi line, holding right rudder on takeoff, and even landing the plane unassisted. What I mean by this is it takes time to absorb this new world, but once you do it's a wonderful experience for most pilots. I think this is why I've always enjoyed teaching primary students more than advanced students like instrument and ME.

Give it time. Go do the second flight, and the third. It's a lot to learn but so gratifying in the end. Good luck.
 
I felt a little motion sickness the first few flights, especially doing maneuvers/stalls. Buy some ginger supplements and take before flight. Only you can know if you should be doing this. Despite the nausea, I was determined to do this. The nausea went away as soon as I got more familiar with how a plane moves. It is a huge body of knowledge, but it's doable...people do it every day.
 
Don't be reluctant to tell your instructor to slow down...after all, s/he is your employee. Different people assimilate information differently (duh), so s/he must adjust to you, not the other way around.

Bob
 
Lots of good advice posted. Many of us experienced saturation, nervousness, nausea, exhilaration...and combination of those feelings after the first training flight. Don’t sweat it as it will come to you, much like when you learned to drive and had a. death grip on the steering wheel. Today, you probably are a whole lot more relaxed when you drive vs the first few times you got behind the wheel. in the same way, flying will become more comfortable (but will require a lot more vigilance)...it just takes time.
 
No big decisions until you've a few lessons. It is quite normal to be a bit overwhelmed starting out. You'll get to feel that way again once you start your IFR training. Aviation is not for the weak-minded.
 
Alberto Garcia said:
I'm a 27 yr old male thinking of going after a career in aviation, I'm new to aviation I have no one in my family in aviation nor do I have any friends in aviation. I decided to go after my ppl after months of procrastination and after a discovery flight! In my intro flight the instructor let me most of the flying & it was awesome I loved it but when I went for my 1st lesson (different school&instructor) idk what happen but I felt so saturated with info, got a little nauseous at the end & was so exhausted. All I could think of is how am I ever going to learn all of this. I just felt so overwhelmed & started to second guess myself "is this really for me?" My question is are these feeling normal? Anybody go tru this? I was thinking of not even scheduling a 2nd lesson! Any advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
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Your feelings are absolutely normal. I just passed my check ride a couple weeks ago, and I went through all of that. Stay with it and you'll get it. It's like drinking from a fire hose. The info comes fast and furious, but take your time with it all. There's no rush. Watch Youtube, read, study, and fly and it will all come together in time.
 
Alberto Garcia said:
I'm a 27 yr old male thinking of going after a career in aviation, I'm new to aviation I have no one in my family in aviation nor do I have any friends in aviation. I decided to go after my ppl after months of procrastination and after a discovery flight! In my intro flight the instructor let me most of the flying & it was awesome I loved it but when I went for my 1st lesson (different school&instructor) idk what happen but I felt so saturated with info, got a little nauseous at the end & was so exhausted. All I could think of is how am I ever going to learn all of this. I just felt so overwhelmed & started to second guess myself "is this really for me?" My question is are these feeling normal? Anybody go tru this? I was thinking of not even scheduling a 2nd lesson! Any advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
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Advice? Schedule the next lesson. When I stepped out of the plane after my first I was exhausted to. My right leg gave away and almost fell to the ground. Second flight wasn't much better.
 
Take it in smaller increments,let your instructor know how your feeling. It only gets better.
 
My first lesson I was sick for days after I got over it I never had an issue

Overwhelmed feeling is common and normal

Flying in general for a rating or certificate is a mental status test
 
I didn't have that issue the first time but when I came back to flying after 20+ years off I felt overwhelmed for the first few hours wondering why I had to think about all the stuff that I used to do automatically. I got a little queasy when I was under the hood. Ginger tablets can help with a queasy stomach. After the first few flights it started to click again and all was well. It is normal.

I would agree with those above it is WAY too soon to evaluate it. You are drinking from a fire hose right now but many of the things you are having to think about doing will just become automatic. I sometimes fly different airplanes and the first few hours I will be reaching for knobs that aren't there because they were in a different place the last plane I flew. How many guys that fly a plane with carb heat pull back the power then muscle memory has you pulling the carb heat? Or when you do a go around you just automatically push in the carb heat with the power and really do it without much thought?
 
Give it a 3rd thought and go try it again! If it’s just not working for you after that, than flying may not be right for you.

Good luck!
 
Be an active participant. Ask your instructor for a recommendation for a private pilot flight manual. (Kershner is a classic.) Read it. Ask questions. The manual will help you understand the necessary steps to achieve your license, and give you context for each lesson. It's a progression. A good instructor will even suggest what you should be studying before your next lesson, and tell you what each lesson is designed to accomplish.

Stick to it, and good luck. Remember, ultimately flying is fun, if challenging at times,
 
Some instructors and students just don't hit it off right away. Tell your instructor how you feel (about being overwhelmed). He might be able to adjust his approach to make you feel a bit more comfortable. After all, you're the customer.
 
Alberto Garcia said:
My question is are these feeling normal? Anybody go tru this?
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In order.
Yes
Yes, everybody.

For me the 'firehose' feeling was pretty much constant during training (details below). Everyone learns at a different pace. The rate at which you gain comfort will depend on how you learn.
I found a few things that helped me get through the initial maxed out feelings.
1. I debriefed myself after every flight. I kept a blog and wrote down what we did, what went right, what went wrong, and what I was going to work on the next time. Being able to be honest with yourself is a huge help. Giving yourself specific tasks to work on next flight helped me gain confidence.
2. After I was pretty sure I was going to make a go of training, I purchased ForeFlight and logged every flight and a subscription to CloudAhoy so I could upload my flights and get a point by point analysis of each portion of the flight. Seeing that my pattern wasn't squared off helped me focus on getting it square. Seeing steep turns gave me specific factors to watch next time around. Neither of these are cheap but I put them in perspective of 'hours of flight' and they seemed pretty inexpensive.
3. I found sim flying helpful. It is, essentially, glorified chair flying but with tactile feedback. A sim is NOTHING like a real plane but the rote repetition was helpful. YMMV.
4. Talk to your CFI. As others have said, he's your employee...help him to help you.
5. I was having a heck of time with cross-winds and gusts. I took one flight and gave the controls to my CFI and had him talk through the pattern 5 or 6 times. He turned the controls back to me and I nailed the next landing. Sometimes letting someone else fly can be helpful.
6. Training isn't a steady process. You will go 2 steps forward and 12 back some days. Then you'll have those 'hole in one' days where everything goes right and you're kicking a.. Training can be really frustrating; stick with it.
7. Fly as often as you can. If you fly one day, take a week off, then go up again, you will be starting over. As you gain proficiency, this will be less of an issue but the whole 'rusty pilot' thing is real.
8. The folks in this forum are great. They talked me off the ledge at least twice (thank you all!) and helped me keep with it. If you're having a problem, post the details and (as this thread demonstrates), you'll get all the feedback you would ever want!
9. Landing is hard. Every landing is different so it was hard for me to get even reasonably proficient. Last week I was greasing them. Today was gusty and...not so much. I got the plane down in one piece but they weren't pretty.

Actual flying isn't nearly as exhausting as training. You have the basics down, can plan a flight, fly, and enjoy the trip. For me training was work. Flying is fun.

My stats:
Sport pilot, cert 1 month ago, age 63.
I tried to fly twice a week, more when close to a checkride.
Time from first flight to cert: 14 months. At least 6 months of that were weather delays for scheduled checkrides.
I got my cert 1 year after my first solo.
Just over 100 hours by the time I got to my checkride.
The good news; by the time the weather and checkride got together, the checkride was a cakewalk...pretty much no jitters at all.
 
Good thread and discussion....

As a future CFI wanna be, I'm gonna keep all this in mind to make the first few lessons more of "drink from garden hose". Maintain some noticeable progress, but go easy while the student builds some skills and knowledge foundation.
 
I felt exactally the same way, I blamed the plane being too small, the heat, you name it. I was so scared of puking I would not eat for hours before I flew. But every lesson I would start to get “sick”. Found out that i needed to make sure I did eat something before every lesson! It took me almost 10 lessons to learn that!! No second thoughts!!!
 
Alberto Garcia said:
I'm a 27 yr old male thinking of going after a career in aviation, I'm new to aviation I have no one in my family in aviation nor do I have any friends in aviation. I decided to go after my ppl after months of procrastination and after a discovery flight! In my intro flight the instructor let me most of the flying & it was awesome I loved it but when I went for my 1st lesson (different school&instructor) idk what happen but I felt so saturated with info, got a little nauseous at the end & was so exhausted. All I could think of is how am I ever going to learn all of this. I just felt so overwhelmed & started to second guess myself "is this really for me?" My question is are these feeling normal? Anybody go tru this? I was thinking of not even scheduling a 2nd lesson! Any advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
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Most people go through this! That is exactly what happened to me, but I am very glad I stuck with it. Half of learning to fly
Is just getting used to physically being in the plane and in the air. The nausea doesn’t last but for a couple lessons. Fly early in the morning.
 
Normal.

I asked for a “slower” more laid back instructor. Things were more “chill”. Still a lot, but made a difference for me.

Go back. Report back here in 5-10 hours.
 
Very normal feeling/reaction. Don't sweat it. schedule your next flight, make sure you eat a good meal before any flight, watch some of my training videos and you'll be just fine.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Good thread and discussion....

As a future CFI wanna be, I'm gonna keep all this in mind to make the first few lessons more of "drink from garden hose". Maintain some noticeable progress, but go easy while the student builds some skills and knowledge foundation.
Click to expand...

There will be students for which the first few hours will be airplane rides, not training. Seriously. The human body was not designed to function away from terra firma, and for some folks the idea of being able to move in three dimensions well above the ground takes some getting used to. Accommodate those folks. Introduce control effects very slowly, being sure that the student fully understands what the elevator, ailerons, and rudder are for and how the airplane reacts to control deflection (and how over-controlling is counter-productive). Slow and easy, one building block at a time. That's one of the reasons I hated teaching at a 141 school...

Bob
 
Ben2k9 said:
I felt a little motion sickness the first few flights, especially doing maneuvers/stalls. Buy some ginger supplements and take before flight. Only you can know if you should be doing this. Despite the nausea, I was determined to do this. The nausea went away as soon as I got more familiar with how a plane moves. It is a huge body of knowledge, but it's doable...people do it every day.
Click to expand...

Second this. I had it to the point of wondering if I could get over it. A light, bland meal, then ginger supplement, and finally a piece or two of ginger candy helped tremendously. After 5 or 6 lessons I was good, stopped the ginger after about 10.

And there’s nothing wrong with asking the instructor for a little break and some straight and level if you feel quesy. Hang in there!


(We’ll save unusual attitudes in foggles for another time.) Lol.
 
Alberto Garcia said:
I'm a 27 yr old male thinking of going after a career in aviation, I'm new to aviation I have no one in my family in aviation nor do I have any friends in aviation. I decided to go after my ppl after months of procrastination and after a discovery flight! In my intro flight the instructor let me most of the flying & it was awesome I loved it but when I went for my 1st lesson (different school&instructor) idk what happen but I felt so saturated with info, got a little nauseous at the end & was so exhausted. All I could think of is how am I ever going to learn all of this. I just felt so overwhelmed & started to second guess myself "is this really for me?" My question is are these feeling normal? Anybody go tru this? I was thinking of not even scheduling a 2nd lesson! Any advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Click to expand...

Have you scheduled your next flight yet?
 
Believe us when we say that this is totally normal!
I was a little older than you when started and did not even try to land the plane until about 5 or 6 lessons in. It was just waaaay too much info. At the beginning I wasn't even paying attention during landings because I was exhausted by the end of the lesson. Later I would ride the controls with the CFI during landings but still had no idea what was going on. Later I would control the rudder only, or the yoke only and CFI would do the others and it s l o w l y started to come together.
What I found extremely helpful for me, on days when wx was IMC and all the planes were on the ground, I would take the keys and just sit in them for hours. (good thing if you live 10 mins from the airport).
I would look at and touch every screw, every panel, every bolt. I would play with the instruments, play with the controls. For me getting very familiar with the cockpit made a lot of help, because when you know the inside of your plane like the back of your hand, you can focus your attention on the outside, on the actual flying.
Keep at it, it will be fun!
 
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