WingFlaps wrote:

Dudley Henriques wrote:

But in my opinion, and in the opinion of many CFI's out here, you will
be a MUCH better pilot if your comfort zone in the air includes a
complete familiarity with the left side of the flight envelope, you feel
comfortable doing a full stall and recovery with the airplane, and your
butt cheeks don't squeeze together ever more tightly as the pitch
exceeds 30 degrees and the bank goes beyond 60 degrees.


I see your point but I admit to being "uncomfortable" with advanced
stalling manouvers. I can recover well within PTS when the wings let
go but I don't like it. What runs in my mind is: Should I feel
comfortable at the edge of control, and if I am comfortable will I be
more likely to go where I should not? When I get onto my dream of
aerobatics I'll let you know how my comfort zone extends.

Cheers

The key to everything I commented on and with your comment as well is a
GOOD CFI, and I don't mean a CFI who can teach full stalls and left side
flying. The answer is more subtle than that. It lies in how the
instructor approaches these issues with the student.

If the instructor is lacking in the ability to evaluate the student on a
personal basis and deal with these issues directly on that basis, there
is a very good chance a new student will never feel comfortable in an
expanded comfort zone.
The instructor literally has to take a new student who might be, and
more often than not IS, apprehensive, and GUIDE that student CAREFULLY
and with great skill and tact into the areas of flight that define an
expanded comfort zone.
Instructors capable and willing to teach in this manner are the good
ones, and if there is one single facet of flight training where I
literally BEG new pilots to spend time it's in seeking out and finding
these instructors.
Once this pairing has been made, the potential for a new pilot to become
a better pilot than they would have been in any other scenario is
TREMENDOUS!!

As for your own situation, just the fact that you are seeking out
aerobatics tells me that the odds of you achieving your goal of becoming
a better all around pilot are high. You will need to make the pairing of
which I speak. The rest will come easily and naturally to you.

--
Dudley Henriques