dl773

Hello all,

I am starting my private pilot training in a month's time. I was wondering if you all had any advice for someone about to go through this? Anything I should pay particular attention to (other than the CFI )? Any particular skill to focus on that can help me get the hang of it faster?

Thanks in advance! I can't wait!

DILLA

Enjoy the experience, and don't let yourself get discouraged if you don't nail everything immediately. Those were my mistakes...it's easy to lose sight of why we, as pilots got into flying...for the love and enjoyment of it. Good luck and have fun while you learn!

JamesNoBrakes

The biggest piece of advice that I'd give would be for you to be responsible for your own learning. CFIs shouldn't attempt to spoon feed info, you have to look it up and study it on your own. The litmus test of any session should be: did I study enough to be familiar with the subjects we discussed today? Can I now go and look up ALL of the information myself because my CFI showed me where the FARs are, gave me the advisory circular (or showed me where it's at) and had me look them up myself. DO NOT let your CFI tell you anything that can be referenced. It's his job to show you where it's at and how it applies, and your job to read it and know it. All too often training ends up with students taking loads of notes based on their CFIs lecture/briefing, assuming things are a certain way because the CFI "said so", but even if he said it right, our recollection is not perfect and our interpretation changes over time. I give checkrides sometimes and it blows my mind how a student sometimes misunderstands a maneuver on a very basic level, all of which could have been avoided by studying it at the most basic level. You hold a lot of the power here. Make decisions when something isn't "good enough". Don't be a pain for your flight instructor, but realize his role isn't to spoon feed and tell you everything you need to know. Armed with this type of attitude, you should be exceptionally successful as a pilot! Good luck!

Flying Ninja

I read the following books before I even sought out a flight instructor:

Airplane Flying Handbook
Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge
Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook
Jeppesen Private Pilot Manual
FAR/AIM

When I did find my instructor, he had very little to do with me other than show me how to operate the airplane and help me with radio communications a little.

As JamesNoBrakes said, own your training. If you're going to rely on your CFI to read you bedtime stories, I'm sure s/he will happily do that, and you'll be paying every penny for his time. There is no reason to pay a CFI to read to you. At the end of the day, you're the one taking the check ride, not him/her. You better know it. No one can dump knowledge (which is freely available on the FAA's website) into your brain.

Outlaw2097

There will be a flight that will be horrendous. Nothing will go right, the maneuvers will be out of their parameters, and you will bounce on the landing. It will happen, and you can get over it. It is one of the important steps of learning, so go home and relax, keep studying, and move on from there.

Doubling up on what JNB & Ninja said, study. Either go into each lesson with at least some basic understanding or you will wind up having your instructor spoon feed you every piece of information while you are being charged. If you wind up in that situation, take notes and dont just listen and nod your head, because it will waste both of your's time as well as your money.

PearlPilot

Study a lot, ask a lot of questions, and enjoy the process. Like the previous opinions, do not be frustrated after unsuccessful lessons, there will be and it is entirely normal. Join AOPA, the above books recommended are excellent study material. Above all have fun.

BTpilot

Persevere through your weak points but ALSO do not forget about the things you can do well right away.. Remember that PPL is very "all around".

I remember when my students used to say "but I know all these questions you're asking.. Can't we work on my weak areas?".. It's all about keeping all knowledge fresh and spot on.

Fly safe and don't do anything stupid. If you feel like it'll be dumb, don't do it lol.

Also... Read read read

cws1028

Biggest thing I see students struggling with are procedures. When told to do a Power-off stall. They forget how to set up, but once they are reminded, they can do the procedure fine. Same thing in the traffic pattern and the procedures specific to the aircraft for Downwind, Base, and Final. I would reccomend getting these procedures down, so you can focus more on flying the aircraft to clean up the maneuvers and not trying how to do them in the first place.

bage881

I'm starting/finishing my PPL in about 3-4 months...I can only imagine how excited you're feeling!

I have some previous experience, 10 hrs of flight but I've learnt a great deal, Its basically what everyone has been telling you...Self Study and make sure you have a general understanding of what you will be doing once you're in the aircraft.

Get some chair practice, If possible and allowed, with your instructors permission, you can get there a bit earlier than him, preflight and go thru the checklist yourself until you're familiar with the buttons in the cockpit while you're on the ground, saving both time and money!

Good Luck with your training and let us know how it goes when you do start!

Brownypilot

Not sure if it's stated above but it might be a good idea to use different instructors, I have flown with 8 over the course of my ppl training (I'm in the home-stretch, gona do my first solo xc this week !!!), it's great to see and learn from the different techniques and teaching methods.