Pace of Training

[Boiler03]

I posted a little about this in my intro in Student Pilots thread, but thought it may be worthy of a new thread so as not to derail that one (if that's possible for a 73 page thread). I've been taking lessons about once per week since my discovery flight a little over a month ago. I believe I'm noticing some regression in my skills each time doing it at this pace. I don't really have the time to pick up the pace overall, but I am considering taking off a couple weeks of work to focus on flying 3-4 times per week and I'm really curious how those who have trained at different paces think that may affect the learning curve and progress overall.

For reference, I'm at around 8.5 hours flight time now and just starting to land the plane. It will probably be another 3-4 lessons before I can block out the time to fly heavily for a couple weeks. I'm thinking this may be right around solo time, so could be some really intense learning and I'm hoping it will propel (hehe) me right into cross country training.

Any thoughts, general or specific, on training pace are much appreciated!​

 

[bobmrg]

Everyone hits a plateau during training. How long it lasts varies from person to person. You are very early in the game to start obsessing about this....8.5 hours is nothing, in the great scheme of things. Just keep working at it, watch YoTubes on how to land (there are dozens) and one day it will click.

Bob

 

[Cptwing]

I have been training 2 lessons a week, averaging 3hrs on the Hobbs a week. I have found that this is a comfortable pace for me. If your CFI has a syllabus and provides you with information about upcoming lessons, study read and watch videos. The more prepared you are obviously the more you will get out of your lessons.

I find flying twice a week, left me enough time to study for the knowledge test simultaneously. Though not much time for anything else but work. The knowledge test and information required to learn is a lot. Have you enrolled in a formal ground school? The ground school and knowledge test prep helped me understand a lot more about flying.

 

[paflyer]

8.5 hours seems like a long time to not have landed.

 

[deyoung]

I flew about twice a week for most of my training and that was a good, workable pace for me, but it's pretty individual. Although flying more often generally means you'll have a bit less to refresh from the previous lesson, it's going to vary no matter what; I wouldn't lose any sleep over it at this point. Do what's comfortable without turning the rest of your life upside down.

I didn't do any sort of formal ground school, though I did get the written out of the way fairly early. Whatever works for you!

 

[dmspilot]

How old are you?

 

[Ken Ibold]

8.5 hours seems like a long time to not have landed.

Probably took off with a lot of fuel and a lunch.

 

[frfly172]

I wouldn’t worry at this time,everyone learns at their own pace. Asking for input from other pilots,only serves to put undo pressure on yourself. Discuss your worry’s with your instructor.

 

[Boiler03]

Thanks everyone for the input. I’m not really concerned about my current pace. I’m in no hurry at all. Really enjoying every minute of my time up in the air. Just wondering what others may have experienced related to frequency of lessons and what to expect if I did take a couple weeks away from work for some intense training.

 

[Boiler03]

I have been training 2 lessons a week, averaging 3hrs on the Hobbs a week. I have found that this is a comfortable pace for me. If your CFI has a syllabus and provides you with information about upcoming lessons, study read and watch videos. The more prepared you are obviously the more you will get out of your lessons.

I find flying twice a week, left me enough time to study for the knowledge test simultaneously. Though not much time for anything else but work. The knowledge test and information required to learn is a lot. Have you enrolled in a formal ground school? The ground school and knowledge test prep helped me understand a lot more about flying.

Twice a week with 3 hrs Hobbs time sounds pretty ideal. I have been doing the Cessna ground school program on my own time and keeping up with that pretty well. I also bought Kershner’s Student Pilot Flight Manual and have been using it for study and reference.

 

[Boiler03]

How old are you?

36

 

[Boiler03]

8.5 hours seems like a long time to not have landed.

I’ve landed, but only on the most recent lesson. Did a touch and go, then a full stop to finish the day. Bounced the first one pretty good and nailed the second for full stop. No crosswind at all though.

 

[chemgeek]

It is possible to "overtrain." You may find you learn quicker flying only twice a week. If you train too often you may find you are ingraining poor technique. Physical training literature shows that it takes 25 repetitions to learn a new skill but twice as long to extinguish an incorrectly learned skill. People vary, but I found my sweet spot was twice a week sessions during primary training.

 

[Mike Smith]

My training lasted about 30 weeks from first lesson to checkride. I had @ 50 hours when I did. So, I averaged just a little less that 2 hours per week. Of course some weeks it’s was more and some less.....weather, scheduling etc. I never had a syllabus. We would debrief sometimes when it was necessary. My CFI would sometimes tell me to study chapter x through y. Mainly I just read and studied voraciously and usually had a good idea what we were doing. I had a great relationship with my instructor, that is important.

 

[kath]

There was a thread a little while ago full of data: https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/how-long-did-it-take-to-get-your-ppl.111783/
...and you can take those numbers (hours / calendar time) to conclude that... well, the point is that you'll see the numbers are all over the place!
Meaning, people all found different routes to the goal, and comparing your rate of progress to some kind of "standard" is a kinda silly; there isn't one.

I'm a fan of the "steady" pace, at whatever rate fits your lifestyle, especially if you have a day job of some sort that would be disrupted.
Unless you're in academia, in which case, just blow that off and go fly....... mwa-hahaha!

Don't worry, you'll get stuck, and then unstuck, and frustrated, and then unfrustrated, and you'll get there!

 

[mscard88]

I always suggest twice a week as a minimum so lessons will be moving ahead and not regressing. Once a week from my experience is the bare minimum.

 

[denverpilot]

Twice a week is the general rule of thumb for not going backward a lot between lessons.

You might want to let your instructor know you can do a little time off LATER when you’re in the “big push” to finish up, right before the checkride.

Many people do well with a final push of three or four days of constant flying to polish everything up, solidify it, knock out any bad habits or problems, hit a confidence high point, and take the ride. Like a Wed-Fri thing or Mon-Wed with the ride on Wed and a little flying the weekend prior.

If the instructor knows that’s an option they can schedule you that way toward the end.

A couple of days backed up against a weekend isn’t a bad idea for long XC work either. So many places are slammed on weekends that getting an aircraft on say, a Thursday, and doing the XC with Friday off, can reduce “airplane problem” stress.

But at less than 10 hours, I wouldn’t sweat it if the schedule is a couple of times per week. That’s pretty common unless you’re going for an accelerated training type of goal and want the aircraft and instructor’s time set aside for a big chunk of time.

Have done it both ways. I like compressed better than drug out, but everybody has different personalities, finances, and goals. You can always dip your toe into accelerating by taking a couple days off against a weekend and pre-planning to do it with the instructor and the aircraft. If you have the funds and find it works well for you and the instructor, you can always speed up.

 

[Boiler03]

Twice a week is the general rule of thumb for not going backward a lot between lessons.

You might want to let your instructor know you can do a little time off LATER when you’re in the “big push” to finish up, right before the checkride.

Many people do well with a final push of three or four days of constant flying to polish everything up, solidify it, knock out any bad habits or problems, hit a confidence high point, and take the ride. Like a Wed-Fri thing or Mon-Wed with the ride on Wed and a little flying the weekend prior.

If the instructor knows that’s an option they can schedule you that way toward the end.

A couple of days backed up against a weekend isn’t a bad idea for long XC work either. So many places are slammed on weekends that getting an aircraft on say, a Thursday, and doing the XC with Friday off, can reduce “airplane problem” stress.

But at less than 10 hours, I wouldn’t sweat it if the schedule is a couple of times per week. That’s pretty common unless you’re going for an accelerated training type of goal and want the aircraft and instructor’s time set aside for a big chunk of time.

Have done it both ways. I like compressed better than drug out, but everybody has different personalities, finances, and goals. You can always dip your toe into accelerating by taking a couple days off against a weekend and pre-planning to do it with the instructor and the aircraft. If you have the funds and find it works well for you and the instructor, you can always speed up.

Thanks Denver. This is good info. I’m definitely gonna give some accelerated training a try to see how it works for me.

 

[denverpilot]

Thanks Denver. This is good info. I’m definitely gonna give some accelerated training a try to see how it works for me.

Some people like it, some people get into the “overtraining” or “over-saturated” mode and need a day or two in between flights to process.

Main thing is, like you said, to enjoy it. If you’re not making a career out of it, and accustoming yourself to week long training slogs for future jobs or ratings, go at whatever pace feels comfortable for you.

And as Mark or someone said, most people do hit one or more “plateaus” where they feel like they can’t get past something and they get frustrated.

Those periods you do just have to push through. The instructor will know if that’s what’s happening and help you through it.

Like a Major League Baseball player hitting a slump. They know, and everybody else knows, what kind of player they are, but something mentally gets in the way for a little bit until a new spark of enthusiasm or insight fixes whatever is ailing them.

 

[dmspilot]

36

Once a week is not enough. I've only seen that work for people who are still high school/college. Fly at least twice a week. You might even want to schedule lessons 3 times a week to account for weather cancellations. Also agree with the others that it's possible to over-do it.

 

[yakdriver]

Fly at least twice a week. Also 1.5 seems about right per lesson. Any less and you don't learn it well and any more overwhelms you. Also it looks like you don't have a very aggressive instructor. I did and he had me landing and taking off from the first lesson. When we flew we would end the lesson doing T&Gs. I solo'd in 7.5 and got my ticket in 7 weeks start to finish.

 

[CC268]

I agree. Flying once a week isn’t enough. Twice a week would be bare minimum. Three times a week is ideal in my opinion.

 

[Boiler03]

Fly at least twice a week. Also 1.5 seems about right per lesson. Any less and you don't learn it well and any more overwhelms you. Also it looks like you don't have a very aggressive instructor. I did and he had me landing and taking off from the first lesson. When we flew we would end the lesson doing T&Gs. I solo'd in 7.5 and got my ticket in 7 weeks start to finish.

This is a good point. Part of this could be that I was very timid about taking the controls at first. I'll talk with him before my next lesson to make sure we're keeping things moving along. I feel like I'm looking at a full 15 hours before solo, and that's fine. I'm really excited to be starting in on heavy pattern work the next couple lessons.

 

[denverpilot]

I feel like I'm looking at a full 15 hours before solo, and that's fine.

15 hours is nothing really, but feels like a bunch in the early days. It’ll happen when you’re ready, and then you’ll look back wondering where those days went... when they’re barely visible back there in the rear view mirror.

 

[Bryant]

I have been doing the once or twice (on the rare occasion I could get on the flight schedule) a week lesson and it has drug training out WAY longer than I expected or wanted. Also, in order to get on the schedule more often, I have had to respectfully “suffer” through using several different CFIs. That caused me to repeat some lessons in order to do some Techcedures (techniques/procedures) their particular way, which resulted in some frustration and delay in progress. I apologize to all the CFIs on here but ya’ll know you do things a bit differently...
After speaking with my primary CFI and the owner of my flight school about my frustration, I decided to take some leave from work and fly/train full time for a couple of weeks to try to finish up. I’ll report back how that goes but I am very excited at this opportunity to finally move on from pattern work and the standard flight maneuvers in the local training area.

 

[Cptwing]

I have been doing the once or twice (on the rare occasion I could get on the flight schedule) a week lesson and it has drug training out WAY longer than I expected or wanted. Also, in order to get on the schedule more often, I have had to respectfully “suffer” through using several different CFIs. That caused me to repeat some lessons in order to do some Techcedures (techniques/procedures) their particular way, which resulted in some frustration and delay in progress. I apologize to all the CFIs on here but ya’ll know you do things a bit differently...
After speaking with my primary CFI and the owner of my flight school about my frustration, I decided to take some leave from work and fly/train full time for a couple of weeks to try to finish up. I’ll report back how that goes but I am very excited at this opportunity to finally move on from pattern work and the standard flight maneuvers in the local training area.

I am very much thinking about doing the same. That or seeking an accelerated program. I just fired my current CFI and am starting with a new one, so going to sit down with him and discuss that possibility.

Please update on how you make out.

 

[Boiler03]

I am very much thinking about doing the same. That or seeking an accelerated program. I just fired my current CFI and am starting with a new one, so going to sit down with him and discuss that possibility.

Please update on how you make out.

I’m considering a couple periods of accelerated training as well. Would love to hear how that works out and what you considered the pros and cons of the fast pace schedule.

 

[mizer2167]

I did 3X weekly in training, averaging about 1.0 - 1.2 on the hobbs most sessions, minus X-countries. Worked well for me. Missed a few lessons due to weather and finished up in ~4 months.

10 hours/month is a good training pace in my opinion, unless you're just spending a bunch of time in cruise or on the ground.