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3 Answers

Concerned and frustrated with progress

Asked by: 3354 views Student Pilot

Hello All,

To give a little bit of background.  I am currently a full time employee working in the finance field and decided roughly 6+ months ago to realize my dream and am currently in the process of my going for my private pilot certificate with expectations to obtain my instrument, commerical and CFI certificate to work in the field professionally.

I am concerned and quite frustrated with my progress thus far.  I am roughly 45 hours in which I started over six months ago.  I fly only on the weekends and its been a tough winter here in the Northeast.  I didn't fly all of January and have other months where I got up in the air twice so staying proficient has been really tough.  

I have not soloed yet but we have moved into the cross country part of the syllabus (I am at a part 141 school).  This instructor is a new instructor with approx 600 tt and his other students are in the same camp as me and haven't soloed either.  At least 2 other that I know of which are in a similar stage as me.  He says there is no rush to solo as he wants me to be ready as well as him confident in my landings.  He also says that technically we can go through all our cross country work and once I solo I can do all my solo work together (pattern, practice area, cross country).  I am struggling with my landings at the moment but with not getting a ton of landings in every weekend progress has been hard.  There are some days that I nail them and others not so much.

The second part of the equation here is that I am struggling with some of the instructors communication with me up in the cockpit as well as on the ground when I don't get something or do something incorrect.  His style is to ask me "what am I doing?" in a condescending fashion.  I'm not sure I am learning all that I am suppose to be.  This really gets to me and impedes on my progress.  

So I have no other basis or a way to find out if what I am going through is OK.  I have come a long way and once I get soloed I should on my way to my certificate over the next few months pending good weather.

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.  Do I need to have a talk with my instructor?  Do I need to be flying more?  Should we stay in the pattern working on landings until I am ready to solo before going forward.  I am fully confident in the school I am going to but starting to question things on my end.

Thanks in Advance

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3 Answers



  1. Nascr1Arrival on Apr 17, 2016

    Many 141 sylybi now have your fist solo as of of the last flights you do before the checkride. It makes more sense on paper but sometimes students get frustrated. I would make sure you come prepared and study hard for every lesson. You need to show him that you are ready for the check ride. Chair fly every flight before you show up to the airport. Say every call out and checklist and explain the maneuvers to yourself. You need confidence.

    Before you do your next flight you need to have a meeting and plan out your training. You need to know how many lessons are left. If it\’s more than 15 hours I would consider doing it part 61. Tell him that if he wants to repeat a lesson you will need to have a meeting with his boss. It might sound like a hard line to take but it works, and his boss will be aware of what\’s happening in your training. You both need to be accountable to what happens in the airplane. It seems the average private student is going to the checkride with 60 hours. On a side note if you want your restricted atp, how you get your private doesn\’t matter so it\’s okay to do it 61.

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  2. Nascr1Arrival on Apr 17, 2016

    If you come prepared to every flight and he is still giving you a hard time, then it’s time to find a new instructor.

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  3. humble and fly on Apr 20, 2016

    1. So what is the actual problem with your landing? what part of landing do you struggle?
    Have your instructors ever tell you what is the problem?

    2. Well prepare and show him your proficiency. landing can’t be always perfect but as long as landing was within aircraft structural limitation and on the actual runway not too far off to the side i wouldn’t call it was bad landing. So don’t be too harsh on yourself just make safe landing that’s all you need to do.

    3. Even after all my suggestion didn’t have any improvement? then go find someone else.

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