Convince me to stick with it . . .

Sounds kinda dorky, because nothing can take the place of real flying
experience, but put some time in on your home simulator. MSFS or
X-Plane, whatever. Flying a good square pattern in flight simulator is
harder than it is in a real airplane because of the reduced visual
cues. What it will do is help you practice your sequence...abeam
numbers, throttle back, flaps 10 degrees, base at 45 degrees to the
threshold, etc. Getting this sequence down while managing airspeed and
altitude can be tough, but rarely is a good landing made without a good
setup. An instructor once told me "you can't make ice cream out of
horse****."

Flight simulator is actually good for practicing pitch/power settings
for your final too. Give it a few hours and when you get in the air
again it will be a lot easier.

Zane

Gary G wrote:

I'm really frustrated today and haven't even booked another flight
because I'm pretty underconfident at the moment.

It's just your slow spell -- I think everyone goes through that.

The problem with flying lessons is that you end up trying to please
your instructor, mostly doing drills that have little in common with
the kind of flying you'll be doing after you get your license. It's
definitely important to be able to land the plane, and you'll get
better with practice (just as you probably did driving a car), but in
real life, approach and landing is a couple of minutes of a 3-4 hour
cross-country leg, and you don't always have the priviledge of flying a
textbook pattern -- in fact, since I fly mainly into towered or MF
airports, I very rarely do. Just try to get the plane down and stopped
without leaving any parts on the runway.

The most important things about flying are weather, airspace, weather,
weather, weather, airspace, and weather. Weather is *way* more
complicated than the simple intro in ground school lets on, and it's
going to keep surprising you for at least your first 450 hours (that's
where I am now). I worry far more about understanding the weather now
than I do about where I flare or how I fly my base leg (aside from not
hitting anyone or anything on the way down).


Best of luck, and don't let the little details discourage you,


David

None of them are solo. I'm hoping I might
actually learn how to fly first . . hee hee.