Nothing can present a greater challenge to your ability to perform a task than your own self-doubt, frustration, and self-directed anger. Yet, mastering the wonders of flight is fraught with opportunities to develop negative feelings about your abilities. The point is, learning to fly is a challenge, and that's what makes it so worthwhile. As commonplace as flight has become, it is still a wonder. The plateaus that you may confront are as natural as the halting hops a baby bird makes when it ventures from the nest. Let's take a look at how you and your instructor can work together to clear the hurdles you may face.
First, look at your own expectations. You wouldn't have started flight training if you weren't confident about your ability to do it, but you must realistically acknowledge that you will be challenged at times. Even experienced pilots run into these challenges often. For example, every time I encounter a new piece of navigational equipment or flight management system, my learning curve goes vertical. When I look at an unfamiliar array of indicators, buttons, and displays, I feel as challenged as a new student pilot. I see the learning hurdle as a way to prove to myself that even an old man can learn some new things. I once tried to explain to my wife that I forgot to pick up the milk on the way home because I had to do a "brain bump" to make room for some new aviation technology. (Worked for me, but I don't think she bought it.)
Unrealistic expectations can create hurdles that seem real but are not. Sometimes our learning hurdles are self-induced, but I must admit that we aviators are, at times, our own worse enemies. The military method of pilot training is very much based on a "make or break" criterion. In the military, certain performance standards must be met at specific times or the trainee is "washed out." Sometimes we let this military concept into our training when it may not be appropriate. Sure, the United States produces the best military pilots in the world, but that does not mean the military training style is necessarily applicable to your training. It is important that you and your instructor make sure that your training expectations are tailored to your situation. You are unique, and your learning is unique to you. It is up to you and your instructor to maximize your learning skills. Sitting around with a bunch of pilots telling war stories can be a lot of fun, but don't let the "I soloed in five hours" stories cause you to develop unreasonable expectations. What other students and experienced pilots do or have done may not be the same as the learning plan you and your instructor have structured.
A learning plan is not the same as a training plan. A learning plan is derived when a student clearly communicates his or her learning goals to the instructor. A training plan is what your instructor puts together to help you reach your learning goals. Communication is the key. The instructor may be the big know-it-all, but the student is ultimately in charge of learning. This is particularly important when it comes to that bump in the road we call a learning hurdle. When you run into one of these hurdles it is not the time to just sit back and wonder how you suddenly got so stupid. Discuss it with your instructor - in detail. An instructor can clearly see when your performance is unacceptable but, as good as we are, we can't read your mind. Working together, your learning plan and your instructor's training plan can be melded together to help you jump the hurdle.
I have learned most of my communicating skills from my students. One of my students was having a persistent problem with judging the height at which to start the landing flare. It's a common challenge, but this time it had developed into a frustrating learning hurdle. After one landing that would have been perfect - if the airport elevation had only been 10 feet higher - the student said, "I just can't seem to visualize what the airplane should look like at the flare point." I asked if he had ever sat alongside a runway and watched airplanes land. He replied that he hadn't. So, I parked him beside the runway (at a training-friendly nontowered airport) and performed three landings directly in front of him. He was astounded at what all the fuss in the cockpit looked like from the outside, and it helped him climb the plateau. He simply needed to visualize the whole airplane in the landing maneuver. After my student taught me that lesson, I often scheduled students to watch other students during landing training.
Another example of adjusting the training plan to overcome a learning hurdle occurred when my student was about ready to solo, but her landings became inconsistent. We continued to practice, but I was unsure about solo and so was she. She expressed her frustration with the lack of progress she was making and said she was considering quitting. I must have been listening that day because I noticed that the lack of progress seemed to be a hurdle, not just the landings. We changed our training plan and progressed to cross-country flying without the traditional first solo flight. She excelled at cross-country flying, and her increased confidence seemed to eliminate the problem with inconsistent landings. She had well over 30 hours of training before her first solo flight but successfully completed her private pilot checkride in about the same time as the average student. Her learning plan was simply not synchronized with a typical training plan, but the result was the same.
Look at it this way - as children we usually learn the alphabet by singing our ABCs. However, the order in which we learn the alphabet has nothing to do with our ability to read or write. As students and instructors we can be creative by adjusting the training to help jump the hurdles or to sneak around and attack them from behind.
OK, we agree that you need to communicate with your instructor, but that doesn't mean you can't help yourself. As I said before, the student is in charge of learning. This means that the student is also in charge of his/her learning attitude. Only you can control your attitude. Here are some suggestions:
- Turn anger at what you perceive to be a failure on your part into resolve to solve the problem. Anger closes doors of opportunity; resolve opens them.
- Look at yourself in a mirror and acknowledge your achievements. Crosswind landings may be eating your lunch now, but only a few training sessions ago you couldn't even hold altitude within a few hundred feet of where you were supposed to be. You have made progress!
- Anything you do in an airplane is a combination of various tasks. Take the learning hurdle at hand and write down every part of it you can think of. Try to identify the part you think might be the key to the solution. Review your list with your instructor. I have been surprised several times when I saw what my student had written down, and it helped me revise my training plan
- Expand your horizons. Don't just focus on the learning hurdle at hand. Read some aviation stories. Pick a day to just sit around the airport and soak it all in. Go to an airshow. Put your learning hurdle in perspective by reminding yourself what a wonderful endeavor you are undertaking
Last, consider getting some help from another training professional. This can be a tough one because emotions get involved. Student: "If I ask my instructor for help from another instructor he/she will be insulted." Instructor: "If I suggest my student could be helped by another instructor he/she will think I am giving up." Get over it - your instructor is a professional and wants you to succeed. As a student, take charge of your learning and do what's best for you. In more than 40 years in aviation training I have seen hundreds of students and instructors benefit from working together to resolve learning hurdles.
The famous aviator, explorer, and storyteller Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry once wrote, "I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things." Breathe in the wonder of flight and vanquish that hurdle to the lower world of petty things. You can do it.
When he's not working as manager of health, safety, and environmental operations at an Oklahoma manufacturing plant, Earl Downs can be found at his flight school, Golden Age Aviation. He owns an Aeronca 7AC Champion.
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