I did it
 

Don't worry about it. If your instructor thought you did well, trust him/her. Probably have seen enough students to recognize it. High personal expectations are good for your motivation, but if they are too high, they'll leave you frustrated and unable to learn. Happy flying.

Congrats, thats good stick with it and next flight all the rustiness will be gone.

Congrats, xpigx!

Keep up the enthusiasm, and before you know it you'll be a CFI gettin ready for the regionals..... :D

THX everyone/

I did my second flight today. Pulled my first g's. It was fun. I practiced steep turns, climb, and descemts. Did my preflight by myself for the first time. It was a snap.

Friday I do slow speed and stalls. :D

My wife hopes the ADD will not kick in and leave me bored before I get anywhere. I do not think it will happen, since I have wanted to do this since I can remember. :D

Maybe we'll get some good flying weather here in TX the day pigs fly...

:D :D :D

Congrats!

What plane are you training in?

:p I was supposed to go out on Friday, but we kind of had a typhoon blow through (3 feet of water in 2-4 hours in some places with gusts up to 50mph). So that got cancelled. I think I am going up tomorrow.

Thx. I am using a Cessna 172. This next lesson is slow flight and stalls, then it is landings/atc/touch and goes :D

The instructor says I am one of the best he has trained, and says I should be ready for solo in a few more hours.

Always learnin'
 

Keep it up! That's one of the neat things about aviation, there's always something new to learn tomorrow.

After doing this for over 25 years, I still learn something new every flight. I suppose as I get a bit older, I'll be relearning the things I've forgotten! Haha.:eek:

Great Job....
I hope I do as well as you when the time comes.
I'm still fighting for my medical, I refuse to start with out it.

Is the practice exam on Sporty's worth a can of beans, or no?

Some of my students have used it instead of buying the book. I don't like the Gleim books either, but I use their software, which we have at our flight school.

Okay . . . I took the test and scored a75% the first time, and the second time was a bit higher. Is the test really that easy?

I am not one that freezes on tests . . . or freak out on a test for that matter. :D

I used study buddy and found it useful. The general rule of thumb is, go for your written when you get 90% or more on practice tests. I used the Sportys dvds, and I those combined with the Jeppeson textbook was enough, and I got a 93. The bad news is, after private pilot there are no more free study buddies. I use Gleim testbank, the written and the dvd bank, combined with ASA lectures on dvd. I am a slow learner, so I always take months to prepare for a written and use lots of study materials to help make sure I know what I am doing. I got 96 on the FOI which is my best so far and I used ASA dvds & manual plus the Gleim dvd testbank. When I got over 90% consistently then I took it. I have yet to take the CFI written, but am about 60% done studying now. It's hard studying for stuff like that when you have two jobs but I use my lunch hours. I have been toting the CFI manual around with me for months.

Private pilot is hard due to being new, but everyone agrees the instrument written is harder. I got 86 on it and was disappointed but had forgot to bring an E6B which cost me several questions. I just thought, you don't need an E6B for this test. " I was wrong"... as Ron White likes to say.

CFI-A is rough, but I'm learning that the ATP is in another league. It's rough since much of the ATP is about 121, which I'm having to learn. Usually I just use the software to answer all the questions in the test bank, and then start taking practice tests until I can consistently score high.

does everyone get that line? lol

I dunno, but I am confident that he is not blowing smoke up my ***. I know what my strengthes and weaknesses are.

... because i took my checkride today for my PPL (yes i passed).. and my examiner told me, after 26 years, i was one of the best he's had. but i mean come on, he's gotta say that to anyone who isn't horrible.

Yes they do...Thats part of their game to string people along...

-LAFF

bah . . . I have not flown all week.

Instructor told me he could not fly until Tuesday, because he is studying for his Airline written. :(

Are all CFI's in it to build time only?

LAFF thinks so, because he had a bad experience with one. Any professional who also happens to be a human being will be either motivated or not, motivated for the right reason or not, or somewhere in between. Your instructor is probably studying for his ATP or ATPL (airline transport pilot) which doesn't mean that he will fly for any one type of operation, it's just a certification (and a tough one).

I experienced a variety of performances. My first was a young woman who was extremely capable but went off looking for career opportunites every other week. The second was the best, he would do anything to help you, was extremely good at teaching, and inspired the heck out of me. The example still inspires me to this day. The third was a time waster, a mediocre teacher, and did not know much about commercial manuevers. He was a 90-day zero to hero flight school product. I fired him after about a month. The replacement was a good instructor and a nice person, but had a short temper. The sixth was a young guy at AllATPs and he taught a system of flying more than skills, but it worked and I give him a good mark. For endorsements I went to a variety of teachers, but since endorsements are not checkride graded you cannot compare them to checkride instruction, it's a different focus.

An example to illustrate this occurred when I obtained my high performance signoff. We started it with a trip around the pattern and no instruction. At the hold short line I got my usual checklist and the guy says "put that away". As soon as we are airborne I hear this loud "woooooo hoooooo this baby will climb!!!". When we got back a minute or two later he says, here's your signoff and didn't charge a dime. Turns out he disapproves of the high performance signoff.

Yes they are. The don't eat unless you fly. Its in their best interest to take advantage of you. Protect yourself and get into a program like ATPs. Fixed price, fixed time.

-LAFF

"Are all CFI's in it to build time only?"

ATP CFI's are, especially with what little they get paid.

Yeah right....Local FBO CFI's are, especially with what little they get paid.

-LAFF

A CFI is far more likely to waste time on account of being anal-retentive about your safety as a pilot than by an alleged wish to con someone into an hour's worth of instruction. You cannot know which it is. My first flight instructor took 22 hours to solo me because she was worried I would forget to extend my downwind or pull the carb heat knob at the right time. People don't go into flight training to make money off students because everyone knows there isn't much. The FBO itself may be trying to pad the till, and I have experience of this when going for aircraft checkouts, but there again you don't know if it's that or a genuine regard for safey and to assume you do know is hogwash you don't. Drawing a connection to their pay, and a minor one at that, is not proof they are misusing the privilege.

Dude get over it. Flight training is expensive and you got what you paid for. It's time to move on to other things to be stuck on. Like whether Hotel Paris... excuse me, Paris Hilton is trying to avoid jail time.

I was making $18/hr as a CFI in 1995. If you were proficient, you saved money. If you weren't it cost you more to bring you up to speed. It was that simple.

Rationalize it anyway you like. Money or flight hours - the local FBO CFI is taking advantage of you. You are better off at a dedicated flight training academy.

-LAFF

I soloed at 7 hours. I was and am a good pilot. I didn't need to waste time / money on a unmotivated FBO CFI that ended up w/ 1000 SE hours and less than 20 ME hours in his logbook after 6 years of CFI work. He ended up getting a job with the state police department. They must have been desperate.

Flight training isn't expensive. Its CFIs dragging it out to log another hour in their books that makes it so...

Any one training in N. Cal avoid Blue Ridge Aeronautics at Nut Tree airport.

-LAFF

How many hours do you allege this guy padded onto it? Average is something like 65 hours. Don't be hung up on the old "I do everything in half the time" thing.

So LAFF, why didn't you fire the guy? Shouldn't you have taken control of your learning? I've never met a student who hasn't compared instructors. I won't lie, there are unethical instructors out there. But that's why a student hires the instructor who works best for them.

He was, unfortunately, the best of the lot. One had a beard - unaccenptable. One looked like he smoked pot and had 'body art'. I know he's paid his debt to society but I don't like to spend time with x-cons. Another one came up to me and said he would gladly train me for less (under the table) - no thanks...I don't like that kind of shady person.

I had already tried the aero club at the local military base. Left that place after walking in on the manager drinking at 10AM. Had to talk to the MPF flight commander about that - they didn't take any action so I took my money somewhere else.

At least 10. I should have been done in the low 50s.

I can't wait to hear your sob story when ATP takes you for a ride.

Any time you go to a pilot factory, regardless of what the name is, they're going to be just that. A factory. The faster they churn you out, the faster they can get the next sap willing to pay to play. Quantity over quality. And do you think that instructors that have only been at it for three months are experience? Hell no. I wasn't and I was flying 80 hours per month. Low time CFIs trained by low time CFIs mean you don't get the most for your money.

Slice said it best. The students that study on their own time will save themselves money and time because we have to spend less time spoon-feeding them. It sure is amazing, I've had students that have taken over 80 hours to get their rating (LAFF will accuse me of stringing them along) and students do it in just under 50. I would much rather fly with the guys that do it in less time. No, I don't make as much money on them but yes, I'll usually do more worthwhile training with them when they move on to advanced ratings.

I do not think my instructor is crooked. He said I will be ready to solo in about 3 more hours ( I have 4 hours.). I control the plane maybe 85-90% of the time. I know what I am doing, basically. I have read through the Jeppesen book about 3 times, and answered about 90% of the review questions correctly.

I am just anxious because I want to make my first milestone (solo)m and I was planning on doing it this week, but it looks like it will be next week.

Another question . . . I am going to be an ag pilot, as I have always wanted to do that. No BSJS for me. Never wanted to do airlines for some reason.

DO I have to get my instrument? I heard that I can get a restricted commercial. Is this true?

I am planning on getting my instrument and full commercial later down the road.

Any tips or pointers?

You can get a commercial license without the IR, but you can't fly more than 50nm from your base or at night while operating as a commercial pilot. Might as well get the IR since you need 250 total time to apply for the Commercial.

Without the instrument rating you are severely limited in what you can do with a commercial certificate as the king says. Get the instrument, you'll have more than enough time to do so while you're building time, especially if you're doing it part 61.

No doubt about it. Get the instrument rating.

Relax on the solo thing. I've had good students get themselves so worked up about getting their solo done by a predetermined time that they have set for themselves, that they keep screwing up and can't meet their own expectation... realistic or not. It is as if they said to themselves, "I need to solo by ten hours or I'm a failure." When they can't meet the expectation they get into a mental downward spiral whereby they convince themselves they are no good. Then the self-fulfilling prophecy kicks in.

I myself soloed at 4.3 hours. Scared the crap out of myself and quit flying for about three years. 3000 hours later I can say from experience that it was waaaaaaaaay too early.

From an instructor's standpoint... I like the way the Cessna part 141 syllabus has the student solo just before X-country work and then they are done. No solo until private pilot proficiency has been demonstrated. That's not to milk people, but to be assured that they are safe. The mindset of solo at five hours comes out of the old school seventies Cessna program. I think it puts pressure on students far to early in their training and puts instructors unfairly in the position of being stereotyped as milking their student. In the kindest sense possible, I've seen it more than a couple of times before where a student tries to pressure their instructor and then moves into blaming their instructor for not letting them solo. It is indicative of one of the five hazardous attitudes. Very few, less than 1 in 100, are truly ready to solo in ten or fifteen hours. Don't put yourself in that category because it is too much pressure.

The other side of the coin is that you can solo, then go blow tons of money making bad habits for yourself in the practice area flying around alone when you should have been paying the extra little bit to get it right the first time with an instructor on board. Then the instructor won't have to milk you because they will be doing all they can just to fix the mess they have got on their hands. That always takes extra time and money because they get to unteach while they teach. Newbie instructors aren't trained for that type of complication, getting it right the first time - without bad habits in the way - is complicated enough for them. An indication that the student/teacher relationship is going down this treacherous trail is when the instructor commits to soloing the student in X more hours... it is like a door opening.

I do not have a specific time ;) I hate planning things, because things never go as planned. I am just making my through it. My instructor said I should be ready by hour 7 or 8.

If not, no skin off my back. That is just one more hours to log heh heh.



So I guess I will get my instrument then. :D

Good. That's exactly how you should be thinking. It will bring you success in your training.

As to LAFF... I'm standing right by Cubdriver on this one.

You'll enjoy the instrument rating and it will give you a much deeper intuitive knowledge of the pitch/power relationship.

Hi xPigx.... Radar is 100% correct in his statements concerning soloing. When I was an instructor, some of my students soloed in as little as 12 hours, but most were around 15 to 20. The highest being 55 hours- don't ask, he wasn't really cut out to fly, but he finally did it. IMHO, setting all these time frames and deadlines takes all the fun out of earning your PPL ticket. Sit back, relax- enjoy your PPL training. But don't forget, this training is the foundation of the type of pilot you will become.

And as for the instrument training- go for it! Like the others on here said, it's building time towards your 250 for your commercial. And on top of it, you will be surprised at how much more precise your flying will be after you get your instrument ticket.

Also, on the topic of ATPs... I've really only used them for written exams and some multi engine block time. The instructors are nice people, but it's just another pilot factory. Find a good instructor who you get along well with, and stick with him/her. Don't forget, ATP is a pilot factory- and a lot of those guys have SJS, so the minute Mesa or Pinnacle calls, they're gone and you're out an instructor.