LastXdeth

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

After almost 80 hours TT, two instructors, and a checkride failure with no observable improvement in remedial training for my deficient area , I have almost come to the conclusion that a career as a professional pilot might no longer be realistic for me.

However, I do not want to cut my losses after putting so much time and money into this aviation degree (I at least still want to get my private). I'm considering defecting to the part 61 side. I was wondering if y'all have any recommendations for flight schools around the Atlanta area (preferably south side) that have genuine CFIs who are experienced with training ungifted students like myself.

DontLookDown

I’d love to help you out but the school I teach out of is about 5-6 hours from Atlanta.
What kinds of areas are you having trouble with? Perhaps we can give some advice online

LastXdeth

Thank you sir for offering advice. I've never been confidence on my landings as I should be for checkride level. On my Notice of Dissapproval, it says I missed my point on short field, landed off centerline, and landed hard on all landings (bouncy).

It is easier to explain if you were in the right seat watching me than with me writing this posts, but basically, my aporoaches are generally unstabalized. I've been getting conflicted opinions about my approach from various people. Some say I overcontrol the plane, but others say I need to be more authoritative when correcting for drift.

Stoked27

How analytical do you feel you are with your traffic patterns? Do you 'wing' it with trying to visually judge everything or do you have consistent waypoints that you manage? Example - your aircraft situation might be different:

Position One: 80kts on downwind at XXXX rpm, when abeam the numbers reduce to YYYY rpm and lower 10 degrees flaps. Start decent at ZZZ feet per minute.

Position Two: Runway threshold is at a rear 45 degree angle or you see a visual landmark on the ground, start base leg and slow to 70kts/XXXX rpm.

Position Three: Final, 60kts at XXXX rpm, PAPI= 2 red 2 white.

Having solid checkpoints like that can help you predict if you'll be high, fast, floating, etc ahead of time and helps create consistency in your landings. Tough to say from a keyboard like you mentioned, but often times if a student can clean up the traffic pattern, the landings will get better.

DontLookDown

All very good advice. The perfect landing starts with the perfect approach and consistency is key. Also, have a final checkpoint where you decide to go around if everything isn’t perfect (like for instance 250’ AGL or 1/2 mile final)

tvnewspilot

Airspeed..

Managing the proper airspeed on downwind.. base and final will greatly improve your landings and will automatically make you more consistent in my humble opinion.

Once you have have the airspeed under control, you can then concentrate on flying the plane down the runway on center line.

nukem

Landing is a challenging task combining many of the skills you have only recently learned. Don't be too hard on yourself.


Based on your quoted sentence, I think you might be missing important visual cues during final and the transition from final to flare and touchdown.


While on final, if your intended landing spot appears to move down relative to a fixed point on the windscreen you will land past it. This is obvious once stabilized on final and you can correct or go around.



You can't fixate on just one view. If you only look far down the runway you won't notice small drifts off of centerline and you will absolutely misjudge the flare. But if you only look close it aggravates a tendency to overcorrect.


If you misjudge sink rate in the flare you will land hard. The view I use in the flare is almost totally peripheral but there is a "feel" as well.



Maybe observe an instructor while they land and have them show and tell where and how they are looking. Then have them watch where you are looking.


Be patient with yourself. Your workload will drop drastically and your perceptions will increase with more practice and it will get easier.



Flying is fun!

Stoked27

I’ll echo nukem’s sentiment to not throw in the towel if you’re currently discouraged. The fact that you’re self-critical could work to your advantage in your future if you don’t settle for the minimum. Find the silver-lining anywhere you can, because just about everyone has discouraging days at some point in their training. This probably won’t be the last you’ll feel this way either, I’ve been there too.

From the top of my head I can count 18 CFIs that I have flown with at one point or another (even if it’s just one flight to get checked out in a new plane). Their personalities and ability to pass knowledge on to me ranged the full spectrum. They averaged on the better side, but I saw how some instructors were way more effective at explaining something to me than others. If you’ve only had two CFIs try to help correct what you’re struggling with and they couldn’t figure it out, don’t feel bad trying a third.

Regarding your traffic pattern airspeed, keep these two things in mind:

1. Managing airspeed alone won’t keep you mentally ahead of the airplane. You could have the perfect airspeed on downwind and base, but if your vertical speed was too steep, by the time you turn final and see three red in the PAPI, you’re going to start messing with pitch and power at a time when you should be stabilized (and you should’ve known that was going to happen). Find the combination of airspeed, RPM, and vertical speed that works for you and incorporate it all into your scan.

2. Let airspeed settle... don’t chase it every split second with pitch and power adjustments. This could lead to over-controlling, where simply setting your RPM and counting to three Mississippi might allow the airspeed to stop dancing. In gusty conditions, add your gust factor to your final approach speed and allow some dancing to occur. If your new adjusted gusty winds approach speed is 68kt you might want to allow the airspeed to dance between 64 and 72 without panicking to input corrections.

Chances are your examiner knew you were going to miss your short field spot or miss the centerline before you knew it. Whether you were too fast or not accounting for wind in all phases of your traffic pattern, there’s tell-tale signs which probably indicated an out-of-tolerance landing was about to happen. Practice identifying those and don’t give up.

JohnBurke

I've met two people in the course of my nearly 40 years in aviaiton, whom should not have been aviators. I very much doubt you'd be the third.

If your instructors are suggesting that 80 hours is too much, they don't know anything about the national average, or the fact that 60-80 hours isn't that uncommon.

If you've hit a wall and aren't progressing with a particular instructor(s), then try another. It's your money.

Give up after you accomplish your goal, if you must.

Not before. You have the capability; you need someone to help you realize that.