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2 Answers

Discouraged during commercial training.

Asked by: 2013 views Commercial Pilot, Flight Instructor

I'm training out West. I took a two year break because of finances and I'm sitting around 170 hours. I've been flying for about 1 month and a half. Put around 20 or so hours in and I'm still making dumb mistakes. My instructor has very high standards and wants me to do well on the commercial level flight test. I'm feeling very discouraged. Is this kind of setback in training normal after a long break? 

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2 Answers



  1. Mark Kolber on Sep 07, 2016

    No real way to tell withou flying with you but I’ll ask: after your 2-year layoff, how much time did you spend reviewing basic flight and private pilot maneuvers and bringing those back up to speed before hopping into the more involved commercial ones? How are those basic tasks – the ones you were proficient at before the layoff?

    “Dumb mistakes” are usually the result of poor proficiency at a lower level. That’s not a comment on skill or ability since poor proficiency can have a number of different causes, from inadequate training to simply being a low time pilot who took a lot of time off. Whatever the cause, it needs to be addressed before moving forward.

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  2. Mitchell L Williams on Sep 07, 2016

    As I flew more I became more aware of my mistakes. It’s not that I made more mistakes, just that I became more aware of them. If your instructor has the high standards you mention, you will have no problems.

    Find a reason to fly and someone to build time with. Get all the cross country and hood time that you can, then focus of Commercial when you are closer to 250 (if part 61). We teach initial Multi Commercial in about 20 hours; so have fun up to about 225 or 230. You could also use this time to get proficient from the right seat, so that when you start CFI, you will be ahead of the game.

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