Your training process sounds like a nightmare, but I am glad you made it!

Yes, we have been working on those other maneuvers.  But I will follow up with your suggestions.

Just thought I'd toss this out there.

Cheers!

His training process sounds like what I went through too. I think that people who walk into a “Learn to Fly Here” flight school and walk out in two months as competent private pilots in 50 hours are the lucky few. Flight schools fall into a less preferable slice of the aviation spectrum that is similar to where home and small business computer sales and service fit into the spectrum of technology services. Occasionally you get talented up and comers building time, such as @CFII, or skilled professionals who love to teach, but a lot of the time it’s pilots who have the certification, but cannot get a job flying for a living for whatever reason.

Well, I hope to avoid that and have discussed with my CFI that one of my goals in training is efficiency (money and time).  He seems to be moving me along quickly and I have a bunch of lessons booked throughout the summer, with the goal of flying twice a week.

Currently working on a new type rating now.  I love being a student and learning the intricacies of a new airplane.  I'll probably start my helo rating within the next year or two.

There's a guy at FedEx who's hobby is collecting type ratings...has a couple hundred of them.  I saw him once on a line check showing the LCA that his pilot certificate was multiple cards to fit all of his type ratings on.  LOL.

It was a marginal weather day, but we could have flown.  My CFI said that we had some mandatory ground stuff we had to cover prior to solo, so we did it today.  I knocked out about 8+ hours of mandatory ground school in 2 hours.  But I love the mechanics of flight, so it was a lot of stuff that I already knew.

Sunday should be 4 hours in the air.  I can't wait!  Running through all the maneuvers we covered and new emergency manuevers, but with me doing all of the radio work (I am a LiveATC nut and listen to MSN all the time while driving).

All indications are that I am way ahead of the power curve with only 4.8 hours in the logbook.  I would like to solo ASAP.

(Last week when we were coming in from the practice area I told my instructor that I could shoot an ILS in.  He was tempted to ask for it, but we had a deadline we had to reach.  I'm not sure he's ever had a student pilot shoot an ILS on the second lesson!)

I have a medical scheduled next week and an all clear from my doc on my recent sports related injury!

This is awesome!  I love flying!

Technically, I am a student pilot, as in, I have my student pilot cert.  But i have not flown in 14 months.

At about $300+ per lesson, things got expensive quick, as I have taken all of my lessons out of a Class-C airport.  But then I got engaged and will be moving out of state.  So planning for the wedding, and the fact that the future wife is deathly afraid of flying small aircraft, I have put things on hold for now.  She is willing to let me continue, however, but it seems prudent to wait.

I have probably 8 hours, 4 landings, one was a forward slip to landing on a simulated engine failure.  Diamond DA-20, which is really too small for me, my head always hits the canopy.  I'm a big boy with lower lumber issue, so I think I may switch to the C172, as it is WAY more comfortable.

Good luck, I hope you pick it back up!

The selling point for my family was some recent changes that will make the utility of flying way better than driving.  So I lucked out in that we will have a lot of practical uses for flying.  It won't just be smashing bugs and buying expensive hamburgers.

But I do understand that you will need everyone in the family on board for such a big commitment.

I got my Third Class medical today.  With a nice letter from my orthopedic surgeon, the AME did not have any questions about my injury. Last week my doc declared it fully healed.



Edited to add 7.2 hours in the logbook and, if the weather holds this week, another 5-6 by the weekend.

I just landed my first greaser today at C47 (Portage, WI).  It was an incredible experience.  

I did most of the radio work, GPS, etc. today.

12.4 hours and counting.

Next lesson we working on making every landing a greaser.  Then we talk about solo.  After that, I will be cleared to the practice areas solo.

This is awesome!!

Wait until you are better to get the medical

Never go to a medical with a disqualification.

See above.  I got cleared by my orthopedic surgeon (with a letter that my AME took for my file), got my CFI's backing after a couple of flights that it did not effect me, and then got my Third Class Medical.

It's all done!

Was supposed to fly Sunday.  In between the weather brief and the end of the pre-flight, a single cloud on doppler turned into a full on t-storm.  So much for that.

But I wasn't charged for flight hours, so I got that going for me.

Keep it up!  It's worth it.  I got my instrument rating in March.  Before last Friday,  I had .4 of actual IMC.  I flew my Mooney from Phoenix to Orlando and back over the week of the 4th.  I now have 6.8 actual IMC and logged 29.1 hours in 8 days.

I've logged 372 hours since my discovery flight on 9/11/16.  I guess you could say I like to fly.  


On final to farthest airport I've flown to.  KORL.

Awesome!

I am going back up this afternoon.

Picture shows a lot of loose gear on the panel, getting sloppy are we ?

But congrats on the Actual! Nothing beats Actual. I have never logged Instrument as actual or simulated. Both count equally.

Last week I logged 1 hour of simulated IFR and one RNAV appraoch.

I have hand flown IFR approaches before in IMC but not with a CFI, so it is nothing I can log.

As soon as i get done with my VFR license I am going to start work on IFR.

So I went from greasers last week, to a step back today.  I did move back to my primary Archer (which has lighter controls I am told than the Archer I flew last week) and it was 19010G20, so I had that to deal with.

I was seeing +/- 10 knots on final, so I bumped up the approach speed to almost 80 on final coming down to 65-70 at the threshold.

Tough day for landings, but I am learning how to deal with adverse conditions.

But at the end of the day I was doing an acceptable job.  I flew for 3.5 hours.  I am at 15.6 hours total time.

From here on out we focus entirely on landings, radio work, and navigation to prepare for my solo.

12.6 hours of dual here.

I'm on a health break.  The doc will be removing a 4mm stone before the FAA will approve my third class.

Then, back to it.

Good luck.  I had a "health break" too due to a broken ankle this spring (March to June delay).  You will get back into it just as I did!

Let us know when you get back into the left seat.

Corey

0/4 on attempts to go fly of late.  Weather, weather, beeswax in the pitot tube, and weather.  Those last two on the same day.  Woo.

You keep talking about "greaser" landings, I'm curious if thats a goal your CFI set for you, or a personal achievement thing?  As a CFI, one of the last things 'd be concerned with, would be if my students were making greaser landings.  I'll argue that a firm touch down, on the centerline, in the touchdown zone, with the longitudinal axis of the airplane aligned with the centerline of the runway is a much better landing than a greaser.  Unless of course it meets all of the above criteria also.

I've watched pilots eat up way too much runway in pursuit of a nice landing, occasionally to the point of requiring a go around.  Work on the essentials first, then worry about how smooth the touchdown is.

If you progress to larger, heavier, faster airplanes, and start flying instruments in any inclement weather this is going to become very important.  Better to get the weight of the airplane on the wheels ASAP.

I'm at about 25hours in R22 helicopters. I've been doing solo's recently. My instructor and I are doing a night X-Country tonight (KCVO>61J).

I was struggling the round-out, then started to really get it down.  On the last one I held it in ground effect perfectly aligned on the centerline for the greaser.

Not anyone's goal, just it was a great way to cap off a long afternoon of learning.  And the thing I aspire to is the round-out and flair feeling, not the soft touchdown.

But when I did those smooth landings, conditions were perfect.  When conditions were less than perfect yesterday, it took me a half dozen landings until I started to adjust to them.

My flight training for the foreseeable future is going to be landings, landings, and more landings.  Everything else we have covered.  After the solo, we start on cross country.

There was no more room in the plane lol.  We were stuffed to the brim.

I’m working on my private pilot license. But have stalled out pretty badly. Ground school stuff is a pita from time to time and I’m so damn tall that trainer aircraft suck to fly in.

For ground school get an online course (Kings is about $250?) and just knock out the lessons and take good notes.  If you have a decent understanding of aviation, it will be just a crush of rote memorization (I put viz charts, airspace, and other notes around to look at during daily life), learning and understanding important concepts (weight and balance, cross country planning, etc.), and just cranking the lessons out.  It is honestly just a time and effort problem.  Some have said the ground school is the equivalent of a 3-4 credit college course and I believe them.  I spent a couple of months of frequent late nights and weekends getting through the Kings course after the family went to bed.

From there it is taking and passing three practice tests to get your Kings certificate to take the FAA written.  (I have not done that yet and am waiting for my flight training to cover some topic areas to cement my learning -- I am focusing on complete understanding before I take the test.)

What aircraft are you going to train in?  I have never been in a 150/152, but they look darn tight.  Archers have a decent amount of space.  I am 5'11" and have to raise the seat up a bit to look at the top of the cowl and still have plenty of headroom.

From what I have heard others say, stalling out during training is bad.  You need to be able to give the time and finances to it to go through the training quickly and keep up a rhythm of learning.  That way every time you get back into the cockpit you are learning something new and not having to get back to where you were 6 weeks ago.

I have a forced break in my training because my flight school closes during EAA (about a week and a half of no training flights).  But I am flying with a friend twice that week and should be getting a lot of stick time.  I am on the cusp of doing my solo, so this flight training break isn't ideal but at least I am flying non-loggable hours to keep me sharp.  From there I get back into it hard 2-3 times a week in 3-4 hour blocks.

To be honest, PPL training while holding down a full time job and having a family is a heck of a commitment, both in money, time, and effort.  But I am looking on the bright side.  I don't think there will ever be another point in my life where I am flying 6 hours a week for weeks at a time and learning as much as I am.  So the immersion into aviation is something I will look back on and think "that was awesome."



Good luck on your training and power through it!

Passed my Checkride Monday. Went fairly well. Took it with 40.3 hours.

Congratulations and welcome to the addiction!

Thanks! Headed to Oshkosh Saturday!

Congratulations! Welcome to the club.

Still a student here, too. Last I flew by myself was in Nov of 2007. I have 65 hours, one of which is 1 hour of SES in a ultralight on floats in Sugarloaf Key in Florida. My flight instructor rents space and electricity 100' from my house and we are partners in a business together. I havent had time to get 'back in the saddle' because of my day job. He figures about 5-10 hours of refresher time and then my written and checkride. I hope to get it maybe next year when my free time will kick back in. I am out of work right now on disability from a hip-replacement, but that will change here, soon. I have the best opportunity to finish and go beyond the PPL, but money for 100LL and the plane are slowing me down.

I just renewed my 3rd class medical this past week (or got a new one, whatever )

45yo and 120/70 in the bp. Plain ‘ol walking helps

I'm just elated right now.

I had a great lesson, knocked out the maneuvers, and then MSN did a great job working us into their traffic for touch and goes.

It is something being in the pattern when F-16's are coming in.  And also very cool to be worked into the regional traffic mix.

The pressure is on when an Embraer is sitting there full of passengers holding short for the Archer's touch and go.  There are two pilots up there watching too....

What a fun day!

I am about at 20 hours.  The past 10 days I have had 12 hours of instruction (3 lessons) cancelled due to weather and other circumstances.  No ill will from me as I completely understand it.  It is just an explanation for the delay, which I understand is common in training.

It was a blast flying today.

I was scheduled to solo today.

This morning I had my student solo checkout flight with one of the head instructors.  He signed me off to solo at my CFI's discretion.

By the time the lesson with my CFI rolled around this afternoon, the wind had picked up and was gusting over the school's student solo limits.  And the tower had too many inbounds to allow pattern work.

So I made some progress.  I am hoping to solo sometime next week, but we will see what the weather does.

My CFI says that once I am past solo 75% of it is done and the rest (cross country and then check-ride prep) goes very quickly.  I am still right around 20 hours.

But I got up in the air today, which was fun!

Corey

You still have a lotta flying to do, but it will be solo for most of it.

Take your sectional and draw a 25nm radius circle from the center of your home airport. That will be the limit you can fly without an instructor's endorsement.

If there are other airports within that 25 nm circle, see if your instructor will endorse you to land at them (he'll have to fly with you to each one before he can endorse your logbook). That will give you some experience in going to different places before you do your first cross-country and will actually put into use all that stuff you've been practicing so far.

If there are no other airports in the circle, pick a spot that is and fly to it, so that you have to use those navigation skills you studied and practiced. Don't do any stalls or other airwork like steep turns or turns about a point for the first couple of solo flights- just fly the airplane and enjoy it.

Do a few hours solo and then knock out a dual cross-country and very shortly thereafter, a solo cross-country. Your confdence will soar after the successful completion of the solo X-C.

Yes, that is the plan.  I hear that confidence builds after the solo landings.  I have been flying enough in the right seat that I am comfortable with the VFR (and some IFR) navigation so hopefully cross countries are just relaxing flights!

After a couple of delays due to weather and maintenance (my Archer lost its alternator), I finally soloed today.  We were initially cancelled due to weather but my instructor stayed at work the whole day and texted me that a 6:00 p.m. launch looked good.  With a break in the weather, we flew up to the Dells (KDLL), I gave him three good landings (winds 19004 on runway 19), and then he got out.

As I taxied out to my third solo takeoff, a Citation radioed that he was coming in and gave the controversial "any other traffic respond" call (I have read the debate about this language in forums but was plenty happy for him to call and me to respond).  I said I was on the taxiway for pattern work, and would hold short for him.  He said thanks.  I thought it would be a long wait and then I see him abeam the numbers and hauling ass.  He landed just beyond the numbers as I held short.  I was surprised that he called his position on such a short downwind and not further out.  After talking with him, I saw him just as he turned base.

I don't have any experience with wake turbulence, but looked at my watch and held short for a full 3 minutes before departing.  Departure was without incident.  But when I was on short final my speed dropped from 65 to 60 knots as I approached the numbers.  I watch the air speed like a hawk and was able to pitch down to maintain 60 into the round out.  My CFI and I both think that was some lingering wake turbulence, as it was an otherwise calm night.

Then it was a great flight back to MSN with a twilight landings.

I was surprised that we were able to get my solo in today, but credit a lot of it to the dedication of my CFI who stuck around to make it happen.  He really is a good guy and great instructor, I am lucky to be learning from him.

Good times!

Congrats!

Glad to hear you got you solo in!

FYI wake turbulence on landing ends after touchdown when the nose is lowered. Liftoff or Land before a departing aircraft and Liftoff or land after a landing aircraft. (also some wind drifting to take into consideration)

Great advice, thanks!  I didn't want to take any chances last night.  I saw where the Citation landed and that took up about the first 1/3 of the runway, which was exactly what I was using to takeoff.  With just me in the airplane, I was turning crosswind at the departure end of the runway.  So I was rotating pretty early.

At MSN the Citation probably would have landed way past what I needed.  EDIT: which after digesting your post would have still put me in the turbulence of the landing jet.

How much time is generally needed for the wake turbulence to dissipate?

A couple of weeks ago I had a C-17 and then some F-16's takeoff while I was holding short.  The F-16's waited for a good bit of time after the C-17 before they took off.  Then after the F-16's we lifted off way before they did on the runway.

Congrats man, I found it weird being in the airplane by myself for a few flights.

3 minutes is sufficient for most; 5 minutes for the heavies (757 and up) and military cargo aircraft. For safeties sake (and my own sanity), I just wait 5 minutes for all of'em unless I can take-off before their rotation point AND can turn against the wind away from them.

I just transitioned to a new (to me) airplane.  An Archer with a Garmin 430 WAAS, Garmin 345GTX transponder, altitude hold, and GPS/HDG autopilot.  The 430 flies standard rate turns between legs without flying over the nav point, and the 345 gives us on-board traffic and weather (Bluetooth to ForeFlight on our iPads).  It offers a lot of capability over the basic Archer I started in (although that is such a nice flying airplane).

We are starting with XC training and continuing short/soft fields.  I am learning to program and use the GPS, NAV, and autopilot systems.  I was up for a little over two hours today, so relatively short flight. But the conditions were gusty for short/soft field training, so it didn't take many landings to wear me out.  I am still building my skill and experience base.

On the way back to KMSN the controller asked us if we wanted a city tour before the full stop.  I paused, looked at my CFI, and we both shrugged.  Sure, we'll take that.  How can you say no to that on a day like this.

What a great day in the air.  Automation sure does make life easier.  Being able to see traffic, do flight planning, listen to the radio, and spend more time looking outside of the airplane is amazing.  It was a gusty and bumpy day today.  We were okay at 4,500', but starting at 3,500' and below there was some chop.  If I didn't have the AP, I would have had my hands full maintaining altitude and heading.

It was a great day to fly and I learned a lot!

Any other student pilots out there?

Corey

PPL check ride scheduled for Oct 6.  Only 2 DPEs with a tailwheel rating in the state and both are busy flying their day jobs until then.

Good luck!

What are you doing to stay fresh until then?  Lots of solo practice time?

I'm signed up for my first flight this Saturday. Really looking forward to it.

Thanks for posting your experiences, I've been living vicariously through your stories.

Which iPad are you using? Mini?

I am using an old iPad 4. It works well. I have the basic subscription to ForeFlight and highly recommend that.  I just let it sit in my lap and on final or when I am not using it usually set it behind my seat. It is useful even in a basic airplane.

The Garmin 345 transponder saves me from having to spend $500-1,000 on a Stratus or similar receiver.  It also outputs AHRS to ForeFlight, so it' a pretty cool combination.

@benb Are you at COCC? What do you think of the program?