Tag: Learning To Fly

Categories
Flight Training

Is It “Dangerous” To Worry About Your First Solo Flight?

I recently had a little exchange with with a well known aviation youtuber. In one of his videos, he said that, on average, his students go solo at around 20-25hrs. What?!

I commented that I knew people who were ready to solo at around 13-16 hours, in the UK, and asked if there is a different system in his country. His response was that it is “dangerous” to compare hours to solo and that he would prefer to share the skies with someone who had more hours. #Shade!

In case it needs to be said, I actually like his videos. They are great quality and they’ve helped me a lot. So, this blog is not about putting him down, it’s more about considering and criticising his comments.

#SoloBy30

I’m the perfect example of the kind of student who was ‘worried’ about his first solo. A couple months ago, I set a goal to solo before my 30th birthday. As a result, I started a Go Fund Me campaign and was able to raise £1180.72 towards it.

I’m pleased to announce that, although I didn’t solo before my 30th birthday, I did solo on my birthday week. It was an incredible experience! For more on that, subscribe to my YouTube channel. The video will be out on 17th July 2021.

What is George Saying?

For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to refer to the youtuber as George (hopefully there isn’t a prominent aviation youtuber called George lol).

I was taught that a good way to think something through is to outline as strong an argument as possible for the opposing viewpoint. So, I’m going to steelman George’s argument to see whether I have any counter-arguments left.

George was making the point that it is dangerous to compare the hours by which you solo, because it can be unnecessarily discouraging to those who take longer to solo. Some students may be so down on themselves, so much so, that they quit flight training altogether.

Alternatively, students worrying about their solos may put undue pressure on their flight instructor to let them solo, before they are ready. As a result, something may happen during their first solo, for which they are unprepared, causing them to crash and die. That would be tragic and is worth preventing!

We are all different and we learn at different speeds. We all bring different skills and qualities into flight training. Consequently, everyone’s progress through flight training will look different.

Every student should simply take every lesson as it comes, trusting that their qualified flight instructor is skilled and knowledgeable enough to know when they are ready for their first solo.

In addition, even if it were to take the student more hours to solo, at least they would have more experience and therefore, they would, more likely, be a safer pilot.

Why I Still Completely Disagree

Firstly, does more flying hours automatically equate to a higher level of proficiency? Not necessarily.

Secondly, the fact that George decided to mention that students solo at around 20-25 hours opens it up to comparison. If he did not want people to compare hours, he shouldn’t have contributed to what he sees as a ‘problem’, by offering up that statistic. He should have just said, “students solo when they are ready”. Simples. No? 🤷🏿‍♂️

Thirdly, no student can solo before their instructor allows them to. It is the job of the flight instructor to make sure that the student is adequately skilled and in the right frame of mind to fly solo, as ‘pilot in command’.

If the flight instructor doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to say “not yet” to a student who isn’t ready, perhaps they should consider a different line of work. As such, how the flight instructor responds is far more important than what the student thinks or feels.

Fourthly, people like me, who are determined to realise their dream of becoming a pilot despite very limited financial resources, have to be incredibly efficient. Being efficient doesn’t mean cutting corners. It means that I want to learn all the skills I need to learn to be a pilot, as well as I can, and as quickly as I can, thereby, spending as little money as possible.

If I had all the money in the world, I’d be happy to never think or “worry” about my solo. That way, George could simply continue to cash-in on my lessons through instructor fees, as well as monetising the videos on Patreon and Youtube. 🙄 tut tut!

Last, and by no means least, George’s argument, has no consideration for the positive side of comparison. There is such a thing as “healthy competition”. It has driven much of our advancement and achievement as human beings.

I felt rather strongly about going solo as quickly as possible. That meant I turned up well read, on the theoretical aspect of the lesson, to the point that I could have briefed my instructor on most days (instead of the other way around).

That same desire led me to practise each manoeuvre, over and over, on my flight simulator, in the lead up to each lesson, until I grew comfortable with it.

I watched YouTube videos to learn as much as I could, vicariously. I looked like an idiot in public, armchair flying whenever I could, ahead of my lessons. I reviewed video footage from all my lessons and kept a diary of what I needed to improve and how I could improve on it.

I turned up to lessons with equipment that my instructors never even told me that I needed. How did I know I needed it? Because my desire to solo as quickly as possible made me take responsibility for my progress, which led me to research more broadly and accept advice from other pilots and flight instructors.

When I messed up my circuits, due to being unprepared for the opposite runway, I sentenced myself to doing 100 circuits on the flight sim. That virtually took all day. 100 x a 5-minute circuits = 8 hrs+, as a conservative estimate. Believe me when I tell you, I was ready for any runway by the time my next lesson came about.

In Conclusion

I have to admit, the more I think through it, the more George’s statement seems somewhat ignorant and, at the very least, doesn’t apply to someone like me.

For now, I’m glad that I “worried” about getting my solo done. That itchiness to solo gave me the motivation to plan ahead and work as hard I possibly could, to make it happen.

As George said, in his response to me, the norm is to solo “when you are ready”. Well, I was ready at just under 14 hours of flying lessons (+ 3 trial flights) and I’m damn well proud of that!

I actually asked George, in my comment, if there was a difference of approaches where he instructs. I just couldn’t understand what he does with his students for the additional 17 hours it took them to solo, in some cases.

I was hoping he would outline his approach in a way that was more useful. If he does something my instructor hasn’t done with me, I’d want to know. Afterall, it is my aim to be the best pilot I can possibly be, irrespective of how many hours I have in the logbook.

Regardless, George is a great youtuber. From the little I’ve seen, I’ve always thought he is a great instructor, and everyone I’ve ever spoken to about him thought so too.

Who knows?! Maybe one day I’ll meet him and we’ll hash it out, if it is still relevant and useful to do so. Anyways, a lot has been said. Now, I retreat, to reflect.

What do you think? I’m genuinely curious. In particular, I would like to learn of counterarguments I haven’t considered as yet. Please drop your thoughts in the comments section below.

After all, it is when we are wrong – when we fail – that we truly learn the most. Failures reveal what we haven’t yet learned. Learning makes progress possible. Progress is the best any of us can hope for. Speak your mind!

For more on how I’m getting on with learning to fly, check me out on the YouTube.👊🏾

👉🏾YouTube👈🏾

👉🏾Instagram👈🏾

👉🏾LinkTree👈🏾

Categories
Flight Training My Journey

Shut Up and Let Me Learn

Flying at 2000ft, a few hundred feet below fluffy, dark grey clouds, my flight instructor asked me to perform a medium level turn to the left. A medium level turn is a turn of up to 30° angle of bank, at a constant altitude.

At first, my instructor talked me through the basic manoeuvre. It was clear I understood the theory but my body seemed to be lagging. I was all over the place. The more that he corrected me, the less thinking i was able to do. However, just a few minutes later, he asked me to do something that made a huge difference.

Cockpit of Cessna 152

You Is All You Get

Have you ever thought about the fact that whatever you’re going to achieve in life, your body, mind and being – which you possess right now – are the tools with which you must achieve it?

As such, it seems that one of the most important things you can do is learn to maximise these tools – to study yourself as much as possible and to place yourself in conditions that are most conducive to your success.

What do you like? What do you hate? What works for you? What doesn’t work for you? Why?

I’ve been convinced for years and nothing so far has happened to shake me from the idea that I should be my number 1 student. The more you learn how you function and put yourself in places that maximise you, the better the results you will get.

A Shift In Responsibility

The thing that made the difference was that my instructor asked me to talk through the manoeuvre. He sat back and listened, as he observed.

Somehow, talking through the manoeuvre allowed an increase in my  mind-body connection. My turns weren’t perfect, but they were waaay better. Where I made errors, I self-corrected relatively efficiently.

Thankfully my instructor was humble and aware enough to notice. He suggested that perhaps he should shut up and let me talk through the manoeuvres (more often). After watching the footage and thinking about it, I fully agree!

More Of That Please

As long as it is safe to do so, that seems to be what works for me. I now have the choice of ignoring that or taking advantage of that. Considering that cost of flight training, I think I’ll go for the latter. I’ve got to have a chat with my instructor and make it happen.

👉🏾Go Fund Me Campaign 👈🏾

👉🏾YouTube👈🏾

👉🏾Instagram 👈🏾

Categories
Flight Training My Journey

Solo Flight, Here I Come!

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt over the last year is that when you set off on a journey, to achieving an important goal, you will likely have problems you didn’t foresee.

However, even more importantly, there are incredibly useful solutions that will reveal themselves, but only once you have embarked on and committed yourself to the journey. At least, that seems to be the case for me.

At the end of the 2020, I had a chat with one of my accountability partners and told him that my big goal was to solo for my birthday. I had no clue how it would happen, except that I’d try to make it happen.

A few months later, after one of my flying lessons, my car broke down as I pulled away, in slow-moving traffic. Thankfully, this didn’t happen when I was doing 80mph *cough* *cough* I mean 70mph on the M11 motorway (highway).

The mechanics listened to the clanging and banging in the engine and said it wouldn’t be worth fixing. They gave me a quote for a replacement engine, £1,800. I was devasted. I knew this would have a huge impact on my flying.

I was really tempted to put flight training on hold, to pay for my car’s heart transplant. After all, I rely on it for so much more than just transport (particularly when out of lockdowns). As soon as I decided to put flight training on hold, I recognised in myself the same ‘impulse to pause’ that had crippled many people’s path to progress.

A fear grew within. I realised that if I gave myself an excuse to pause flight training, I might always find an excuse to pause it, which means I may never achieve my dream-goal. There was no way I would allow myself to go down that path.

In the end, I decided to take the car off the road for a few months while I saved up and continued with my monthly flying lessons. With my financial priorities split, having my first solo flight before my 30th Birthday seemed impossible.

Here’s what’s crazy though. Out of curiosity, I asked my flying instructor how far I was my first solo flight. He said, he estimated that I would need another 10 hours. 10 hours? That works out to be £1,800 exactly. Remember that figure from anywhere?  Coincidence?

I remember a while back, one of my friends advised me to start a crowdfunding campaign. Now seemed as good a time as any, so I launched a Go Fund Me campaign, #SoloBy30.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity that I’ve been shown, through financial gifts, as well as words of encouragement. I know that each and every penny gifted to me was hard-earned, and there are many, and arguably better ways that money might have been spent, but those people chose to support me on my journey. I’m humbled and very grateful. Thank you.

If, this time last year, you told me that I’d be preparing for my first solo flight for my 30th Birthday, I’d have bitten you arm off. And yet, here I am, but I’m not sure exactly how it’s all happened. Of course, I’m still a long way from my Private Pilot’s License, but it’s progress, and that’s all one can hope for.

With just over 4 weeks to go, everything seems to be coming together so well. I passed my Air Law exam last year. I’m in the process of sorting out my medical certificate and all the financial gifts I have received have given me a much needed boost to make it all happen.

Solo flight, here I come!

👉🏾Go Fund Me Campaign 👈🏾

👉🏾YouTube👈🏾

👉🏾instagram 👈🏾

Categories
My Journey

The Challenge of Being Imperfect, With A Perfect Imagination

You never realise just how pathetically unskilled you are at something until you get started. Sure, there are times when your innate abilities and previously attained skills will carry you through, but most of the time when you are truly broadening your horizons, you’ll find yourself in the land of uselessness. At the very least, this seems to be true in my case. But, does that mean you should stop? Does that mean you can’t learn?

One of the greatest challenges of being human, I think, is the fact that we are imperfect beings with perfect (or arguably naive) imaginations. No one ever imagines themselves being useless, least of all when they are mentally, emotionally, physically and financially invested in achieving a righteous goal.

Sure, people hold back at times because they feel they won’t be any good. However, when we decided to go for something, and invest everything that we have and everything that we are into a goal, we rarely ever imagine ourselves being shockingly terrible at it. If we did, we just wouldn’t do it.

I had one of those ‘shockers’ not too long ago during one of my flying lessons. Sitting on the left-hand seat, in the cockpit of the Piper Pa28, my instructor asked if I was ready to make the initial radio call. I had never made a radio call to an Air Traffic Service Unit before, but I had practised over and over, before the lesson, just in case. Needless to say, when the time came to deliver the good, I completely butchered it! (See for yourself: My RT Call Fail)

I was slow. I didn’t give all the necessary information. My read back was incorrect. I even used the wrong callsign at the end; a great way to crown an amateur radio call. It’s one thing to master it on your own. Delivering the goods in the moment, under pressure, with lots of other things on your mind at the same time, that’s something else. That, I certainly didn’t do.

You might say I am being harsh with myself. You’re right! Of course it was amateur attempt. What else did I expect? What were the chances that it would be professional level, at my first attempt? It isn’t failure that is a surprise, it’s success that should be baffling.

“You will never improve at something you haven’t started.”

Future Pilot Niner One

It is far easier to see the bigger picture when you are looking into the frame, as opposed to standing in it. When we are the ones in the hot seat, it is much harder to be charitable to ourselves, and yet it is necessary. It is the challenge of being an imperfect being, with a perfect, or arguably naive, imagination.

It is easy to stay within the limits of your comfort zone. There, you are a great success with consistent victories. Beyond that, everything looks foggy, uncertain and chaotic. However, despite others being impressed with you, you might find yourself haunted by the idea that you can do, achieve and be more.

To realise the potential buried within you, you must go beyond your current comfort zone – carefully, methodically but certainly. Beware! The more that you venture beyond the bounds of your current capabilities, the more you expose yourself to the possibility of failure and the discovery of your current inadequacies, in light of your goal.

As much as you might imagine yourself being perfect in your process of growth – not making the dumbest mistakes along the way, always feeling motivated and ‘up for the task’, taking 2 steps forward and no steps back and people always having your back and so on – the real world doesn’t conform to your imagination.

Besides, there is something far more real and more important than trying to live up to the perfect and perfectly illusive conjurings of the imagination, it’s called ‘progress’. There is something more satisfying, it’s called ‘effort’.

I am encouraged by the words CT Fletcher who says that there is victory in knowing that you did all you could do. I am encouraged by the words of Jordan B Peterson when he says, “Just because you have faults doesn’t mean you have to stop. Just because you have faults doesn’t mean you can’t learn.”

Remember that when you venture, even tentatively, beyond your comfort zone in an attempt to become something more than what you currently are. Your mistakes reveal where you are now, allowing you to more accurately plot your path towards what you could be.

The path to success is paved with many failures – even the kinds of failures that we never imagined. Every failure is an opportunity to learn. Every lesson learned unlocks further progress. Every bit of progress means we are truly closer to our goal, when compared to where we started.