Originally Posted by
November Seven
Hello APC,
what are the top five (5) things you wish you could have done different in your initial flight training (Private and/or Instrument)?
Few things that come to my mind:
1) Tempering my 'BS' radar too much on a subconscious notion that my instructor is wiser and therefore never wrong. Trust your instructor - they are wiser, but the whole-person concept is real, students and instructors are human and can make mistakes. i.e. I had an instructor tell me that we're good to go (I'm still preflighting) and I insist that I haven't rolled the tires yet to check the tire tread on the hidden spot. Low and behold a major amount of cord was showing and we had to cancel the flight because they didn't have a spare tire available. That would've had a high chance of a tire blowout if I locked up the brakes on the same spot of tread. If something like an overly casual instructor makes you pause and say, "wait a minute, but..." then pause and actually wait a minute. It doesn't mean you need a new instructor. Just pause and evaluate the situation.
2) Blocking out interruptions during training. Including work, family, etc. You might do well to multi-task, but I do poorly when constantly interrupted so I need to be very proactive about communicating with my family and work when I am not available. My phone gets turned off.
3) I've taken for granted what I was doing and where I was going.
Plan your cross countries to a place where you want to be (maybe a beach-side restaurant if you don't live by the beach?). Don't forget to have fun.