Struggling with single engine commercial

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great lakes pilot

Filing Flight Plan
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great lakes pilot
I seem to be hitting a wall on commercial training as it will be coming up on 2 years. I took my written 1 year ago. I work full time and train part 61. My husband is my primary instructor but when he is gone on trips (airline pilot) I use the instructor at our small airport who is really good. I fly awesome with him and feel ready for my check ride but then I go fly with my husband and I seem to really forget how to fly. It got to a point recently that I wanted to give up flying all together. I love flying but really cannot get over this commercial hump and do not want to give up as I am so close. Does anyone have advice for training with a spouse? I love flying with him and we take awesome fun flights all the time, and I had no issues with PPL or IFR training with him just commercial. Should I stick with the other instructor to finish this up?
 
Yes, personal relationships can sometimes make the student-instructor dynamic difficult.
Might be worthwhile to try a mock checkride (if you're that far along) with an (objective) 3rd-party instructor, as well.
 
It may be worse than you think. You could be taking a step backwards with your husband - for various reasons. If so, the only way to keep going in the right direction is with another instructor.
 
Dump your hubby for the other instructor. There are too many other dynamics going on in a marriage for you two to be in a productive instructor/student relationship.
 
Jim Carpenter said:
Yes, personal relationships can sometimes make the student-instructor dynamic difficult.
Might be worthwhile to try a mock checkride (if you're that far along) with an (objective) 3rd-party instructor, as well.
Click to expand...
Yes I am very close pretty much to mock check ride. I will plan on spending more time with our instructor as he is also more up on the training as he is a newer CFI.
 
great lakes pilot said:
I seem to be hitting a wall on commercial training as it will be coming up on 2 years. I took my written 1 year ago. I work full time and train part 61. My husband is my primary instructor but when he is gone on trips (airline pilot) I use the instructor at our small airport who is really good. I fly awesome with him and feel ready for my check ride but then I go fly with my husband and I seem to really forget how to fly. It got to a point recently that I wanted to give up flying all together. I love flying but really cannot get over this commercial hump and do not want to give up as I am so close. Does anyone have advice for training with a spouse? I love flying with him and we take awesome fun flights all the time, and I had no issues with PPL or IFR training with him just commercial. Should I stick with the other instructor to finish this up?
Click to expand...
These all read like your subjective opinions. It is not about "feelings", it is about performance.

What are their objective observations?

Are you debriefing with something like Cloud Ahoy to better inform your subjective opinions?

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My wife has said on more than one occasion she might be interested in learning to fly, but in no uncertain terms would she ever want me to teach her. I think it has to do with the marriage cliché that the wife is always right and the husband is always wrong, makes for a strange learning environment.
 
I dunno, I think it's situation specific. I mean, it "should" work just fine in theory, but I could see how for some the two might not mix well (ie., flight training and marital duties/relationships).
 
Do you have a book of the commercial maneuvers? Do you know how to do the maneuvers without assistance (verbal cues) and by memory? Only you can answer this question, I don’t think you actually even need an instructor, if you know the maneuvers and the limits, you will know if you did the maneuver within limits or not. Repeat until you got the hang of it, go up with an instructor on anything you’re misunderstanding and then get signed off for the checkride. The DPE is the one whose opinion matters. It’s better if you go with an instructor who knows a DPE’s style of the checkride, just makes life easier knowing what to expect.
 
I close my eyes then things tend to work better lol.

With my eyes open it’s a turn or dive.

So I think other halves like to play around too.
 
Gilbert Buettner said:
I think the chemistry between spouses (or other family members) makes learning more challenging. It's subtle, but it's there.
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Agreed.

He has to really be able to turn off husband mode and ONLY be an instructor.

There is also the possibility that he is not a really good instructor.

I instructed my wife in high performance driving at the track. She commented that when we got into the car, I turned into an instructor and was not a husband during the session.
 
Not a CFI, but I used to teach sailing at a resort as a summer job. The worst students were husband and wife. The wife would totally get the instructions, then the husband would try to correct her, but she was doing it right and the guy was wrong. I got paid in tips, so I had to be pretty diplomatic to not tell hubby he was full of crap.

To the OP, how long has your hubby been flying for the airlines? He might be a bit rusty on the commercial maneuvers. Not getting down on him, but the dynamic might not be right as others have said.
 
great lakes pilot said:
I seem to be hitting a wall on commercial training as it will be coming up on 2 years. I took my written 1 year ago. I work full time and train part 61. My husband is my primary instructor but when he is gone on trips (airline pilot) I use the instructor at our small airport who is really good. I fly awesome with him and feel ready for my check ride but then I go fly with my husband and I seem to really forget how to fly. It got to a point recently that I wanted to give up flying all together. I love flying but really cannot get over this commercial hump and do not want to give up as I am so close. Does anyone have advice for training with a spouse? I love flying with him and we take awesome fun flights all the time, and I had no issues with PPL or IFR training with him just commercial. Should I stick with the other instructor to finish this up?
Click to expand...
Yes, you should stick with the other instructor.
 
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