Learning the instruments

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Joe Williamson

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I had my first lesson today. We couldn’t go up due to snow squalls so we started learning the instruments of the Cessna 172. I felt like I was drinking from a fire house. I’m understanding the concepts but I feel like once I am in the sky it will be a little overwhelming. Any advice on what else I can do to make sure I fully understand them?
 
Trust. Trust that you will understand. It just takes time & experience. People fly all the time without any of that stuff.
 
Joe Williamson said:
I had my first lesson today. We couldn’t go up due to snow squalls so we started learning the instruments of the Cessna 172. I felt like I was drinking from a fire house. I’m understanding the concepts but I feel like once I am in the sky it will be a little overwhelming. Any advice on what else I can do to make sure I fully understand them?
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ask you CFI to go over all of them until you have a good understanding. But when you are flying all you have to worry about is what the instrument reads.
 
TommyG said:
ask you CFI to go over all of them until you have a good understanding. But when you are flying all you have to worry about is what the instrument reads.
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im hoping that it will be easier to read while actually flying.
 
On your first flight, the only instruments you need to reference is the tachometer, altimeter, airspeed, and inclinometer .
 
Joe Williamson said:
started learning the instruments of the Cessna 172.
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Hi.
172s come in many different flavors and you will have to search for something that is more like the one you are using.
Your CFI, the FAA books are some of the best references you can have and the next best thing is Inet see one example below, and or get yourself a Flight simulator like the XPlane 11. You can also visit some Sim sites like the Xplane.org, Flightsim.com, Avsim... and ask questions about tutorials...
 
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Clip4 said:
On your first flight, the only instruments you need to reference is the tachometer, altimeter, airspeed, and inclinometer .
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I remember my instructor telling me, "there's nothing on the panel you need to see." He was right as I learned that the instruments will confirm what your body should be telling you already. You obviously use your eyes, but also your ears for the sounds the aircraft makes at different speeds, alarms, radio work etc. But you will also learn how much you need to push/pull on the controls for the desired results and your backside will tell you when you are slipping or skidding.

In the beginning you need airspeed for reference, engine tach for setting the power levels, and inclinometer for coordination. Don't stress too much early on as it will come and someday your instructor will cover all the instruments and say, "let's take it around the patch!" :D
 
Be patient with yourself, Joe. With all the new “glass panel” displays, GPS unit, etc., there is a lot to figure out.
 
Overwhelming, huh? Have you ever been overwhelmed before? What was your first day on a new job like? What was it like when you first opened up a textbook for an advanced math, science, or other course and skimmed through it? How did you feel the first time you filed taxes for the first time? Are you married? Were any of those experiences overwhelming at first? Did you overcome it? Learning to fly is no different than other life challenges that first appear to be overwhelming. You’ll get past it.
 
Joe Williamson said:
I had my first lesson today. … I felt like I was drinking from a fire house….
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For clarity, first ppl lesson or first instrument rating lesson; I don’t want to make any assumptions.
 
Don’t get hung up on the instruments too much. You won’t be looking at them for too long.
 
Get X-Plane and a good Joystick. They have a great steam gage 172 as well as one with g1000. I use it in my high school aviation classes - great way to learn and experiment. Just remember that for ppl you will be looking outside for the most part
 
Thanks everyone. I am learning the classic steam gauges. Yes I have been through all of those life lessons and made it through. I’m sure I am getting ahead of myself. It was my first ppl lesson. I like to learn as much as possible when I take on a new endeavor so I tend to get frustrated when I don’t understand something.
 
1st lessons are like drinking from a firehose. There is so much going on that is new to you. If you only taking in about 2% of it you are doing good. The rest is just familization next time you will take in another 2-3% more on top of what you got on the 1st lesson, and you will keep building on that.

Don’t worry about all the instruments. Find the Airspeed, Altimeter and maybe the Tachometer. The rest are mostly pilot entertainment. But you probably wouldn’t feel very comfortable if they put a Nintendo in there instead of a Garmin.

Brian
CFIIIG
ASEL
 
Joe Williamson said:
I had my first lesson today. We couldn’t go up due to snow squalls so we started learning the instruments of the Cessna 172. I felt like I was drinking from a fire house. I’m understanding the concepts but I feel like once I am in the sky it will be a little overwhelming. Any advice on what else I can do to make sure I fully understand them?
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I made the mistake of fixating on the instruments when I started my PPL flight training 20 years ago. Chasing needles will always make for sloppy flying.

When you're VFR, look outside at least 90% of the time, and use a quick glance the instruments occasionally just to confirm that your attitude and power are giving you what you want.
 
Joe Williamson said:
I had my first lesson today. We couldn’t go up due to snow squalls so we started learning the instruments of the Cessna 172. I felt like I was drinking from a fire house. I’m understanding the concepts but I feel like once I am in the sky it will be a little overwhelming. Any advice on what else I can do to make sure I fully understand them?
Click to expand...
I can’t think of anything that can get you to ‘fully’ understand without getting in the air. Even then, just getting in the air once won’t make it happen. It takes some repetition. Accept that you will feel overwhelmed from time to time. Just like everyone else who has done IFR training. In between the occasional ‘overwhelments’, learning happens.
 
Everything is hard before it is easy.
Actual practice in the air will answer many questions, and introduce many more.
Relax.
We've all been there.
You're doing just fine. <-- repeat
 
The sense that aircraft instruments, panels, cockpits and flying itself seems complicated and overwhelming to non-pilots is sort of what’s cool about the whole thing. Welcome to pilot’s club!

On the other hand you’ll hear some grizzled ol’ DC3 gal tell you that key to learning to operating that panel is to not touch anything that isn’t shiny. Then you realize once again that most of the stuff doesn’t do anything useful most of the time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Joe Williamson said:
I had my first lesson today. We couldn’t go up due to snow squalls so we started learning the instruments of the Cessna 172. I felt like I was drinking from a fire house. I’m understanding the concepts but I feel like once I am in the sky it will be a little overwhelming. Any advice on what else I can do to make sure I fully understand them?
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Sporty's sells a poster of the Cessna 172 panel, both glass and steam. It's a worthy investment, even if you are not a student pilot. I have one hanging in my office.
 
sarangan said:
Sporty's sells a poster of the Cessna 172 panel, both glass and steam. It's a worthy investment, even if you are not a student pilot. I have one hanging in my office.
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Just ordered it to hang in my office!
 
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