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Originally Posted by
First- welcome back. I see a lot of lapsed pilots returning. It is a vast untapped market for our sport.
Second- Try not to be too wrapped up in how fast you progress. Example- If you are not doing air work with good results like consistent roll rates and bank angles with good coordination, you are not likely to fly tow well.
There can be a tendency to try to do everything right away to try to speed up progress, and maybe save time an/or money. Very commonly this results in negative progress. You can't possibly try to master all aspects on each flight because there is too much to absorb.
Third- Try harder! That is a sure way to slow your progress. Just relax and enjoy and don't compare to 40 years ago. You probably were not as good as you thought then.
It will come- have fun!
UH
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Yes, fersure, in the two months I've been at it (flying nearly every Saturday and Sunday mostly) everything is going substantially just as you say. True, I'm a bit concerned about costs (as I'm living on a tight budget). It is going slower than I expect, but hey, I'm having fun like you say and I'm in no big hurry. One of these days I'll get around to applying for my student cert. I'm not likely to be ready to solo for a while. (When I do, they damn well better cut the back of my shirt off! We didn't do that when I soloed at Fremont 40 years ago.)
Yeah, I was getting a little frustrated with tow flying, but just recently I've begun to get the hang of it so I'm not all over the sky any more, and I think I'm on the verge of getting the knack of doing medium-bank turns well.
One of my four instructors is really good at pushing my skill and comfort-zone envelopes just about right, and I really like that. He's the only one having me do stalls (straight and turning) and slow MCA flight so far, and lately he's pushing me into doing steeper turns.
The other three I think are moving me forward a little too slowly. One of them, though, is focusing a bit more on landing, which I can't really do well yet. A typical lesson on one day consists of two high-tows and maybe a pattern.
We have a young kid here (well, he's actually a senior at Stanford now) who's been flying here since he was 14, who just got his commercial a couple weeks ago. (He's also ASEL IFR rated too.) I felt honored to be his ground crew for his exam (mainly because I showed up). This kid is SHARP. The day he gets his CFI-G (and I assume he will), I'll be first in line to be his student. In the meantime, he takes me flying with him sometimes if I pay for the tow. Good deal! It's like a flying lesson in effect, even if I can't log it. (Golly, I hope he isn't reading this!)
Meanwhile, I spend the weekdays reading all that on-line stuff I mentioned above, and watching glider videos on YouTube, in between the time I spend following all the (ahem) election entertainment. Once the election is over, I guess, it'll be All Gliders All The Time.
-- J. J.
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