which aspect of flight training did you struggle with most?

For me right now, steep turns. One day I am good to the left and struggle with the right. The next day vice versa.
 
Ya know, I gotta come clean on this one. Flight training was a breeze except for one part. The part that gave me trouble was the part between start-up and shut-down. Everything else was sooooper easy.
 
Took me a while to not fear x-wind landings. Living in breezy West Texas, I no longer fear'em, but I dang well respect'em.

Also, certain aspects of using VORs messed with my mind. As much as anything, I found VOR navigation to be annoying since GPS had already become pretty common. On my written, it was the VOR questions that tripped me up. Overall I enjoyed most of the ground school topics, with the exception of VORs.
 
FastEddieB said:
It's been about 40 years, but one thing I remember getting chastised for was under-controlling the aircraft.

I so wanted to be smooth and professional that I would not take aggressive enough action to correct airspeed or altitude or whatever.

I think that affected the way I fly now - making quick corrections even if it sacrifices a bit of smoothness - and what I promoted in students.

IOW, if you can't be accurate AND smooth, go for accurate and the smoothness will come with time. Vice versa seems harder to accomplish.

Back on point, W&B seemed pretty straightforward, though I think (know) I'd struggle now with some of the Commercial questions involving how much weight to move from one station to another to move the MAC x% and that sort of thing.
Click to expand...
I always tell my students to be positive with the controls. Some of them make these little baby turns/descents and it drives me crazy. Doesn't mean you have to aggressive, just make a correction and don't baby the controls.
 
Under controlling was also a problem for me at first. That progressed to over controlling and the death grip on the yoke.

Neither is good. Relax and put the airplane exactly where you want it.
 
Anything that was ridiculous rote memorization. Tomatoe Flames, flaps, etc etc

When I got my first rating, glider, one of my CFIs (flew with him once or twice shortly before my check ride) said I had a tendency to roll into turns like a fighter pilot but that I always had excellent control it just could be startling to someone who was new to flying or not used to flying with me. So I kinda tried to mellow out my flying I guess, for the check ride at least.
 
Last edited:
I guess it's not so much the math that I struggle with. The equation makes sense, I have trouble understanding the relationship between stability vs performance.

I guess as long as your take off WB and your landing WB both fall within the planes envelope then it's not much to worry about.
 
korben88 said:
I guess it's not so much the math that I struggle with. The equation makes sense, I have trouble understanding the relationship between stability vs performance.

I guess as long as your take off WB and your landing WB both fall within the planes envelope then it's not much to worry about.
Click to expand...

Stability vs performance. The CG is always forward of the CL. The aircraft is balanced in flight by the downward force of the horizontal stabilzer. Keep in mind that total lift has to equal the weight of the aircraft plus the downward force of the horizontal stabilizer. Also keep in mind that the greater the lift, the greater the induced drag. Now, as the CG moves aft the balancing force diminishes so performance increases since induced drag is diminished with all other things being equal.

Your summary sentence is correct and is good enough for the private pilot cert.
 
Clark1961 said:
Now, as the CG moves aft the balancing force diminishes so performance increases since induced drag is diminished with all other things being equal.
Click to expand...

To demonstrate...

Go up one day when things are really calm, and trim up the plane for level flight. Note the airspeed.

Then, assuming its safe to do so, slide your seat back a couple notches and/or lean back. The plane, if properly trimmed, will begin a slight climb. Push the nose forward and retrim for level flight and you'll notice you picked up a knot or two in airspeed. As Clark pointed out, less tail downforce is needed, so there's less drag on the tail, and slightly less effective weight supported by the wings.
 
FastEddieB said:
To demonstrate...

Go up one day when things are really calm, and trim up the plane for level flight. Note the airspeed.

Then, assuming its safe to do so, slide your seat back a couple notches and/or lean back. The plane, if properly trimmed, will begin a slight climb. Push the nose forward and retrim for level flight and you'll notice you picked up a knot or two in airspeed. As Clark pointed out, less tail downforce is needed, so there's less drag on the tail, and slightly less effective weight supported by the wings.
Click to expand...

My CFI did this one day, slid his seat back, it doesn't take much.
 
My first attempt at landing our Cardinal RG from the right seat was a controlled crash that aged my instructor about ten years.
 
Spin recovery heading within 10deg of nominal. I kept fudging with aileron as I pulled out, but the CFi caught it.
 
For some reason it was holding the centerline on landing. My CFI took me to some pretty narrow runways to cure me of it and it worked.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top