Todays Cost of getting a PPL

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
news
One thing which helps is to accelerate your training. 90 hours over 2.5
years is 3 hours a month. It is hard to make much progress at that rate,
because you tend to forget things in that week or 10 days between lessons.

People make this comment all the time, and I'm sorry, but I don't
necessarily agree with it. I'm not going for my PPL, rather, I'm going for
my R.A. certificate, which is our (Australia) equivalent of the US Sport
class. Due to budget and family constraints, I cannot fly more than once a
week, and only on weekends. Some weekends the weather is bad all weekend, so
I don't get to fly. I've got 4.9 hours total now, which I know isn't much,
but I started back in September, and can say that I haven't experienced any
lessons that have required me to 're-learn' anything before progressing. My
instructor says I'm progressing very well, and she estimates I'll be solo in
about another 4-5 hours at the rate I'm going. With only 4.9 hours under my
belt, in 2 months, I've got 16 landings and 18 take offs in the bag!
Whilst I agree, some people may forget things in the gap between classes, I
haven't, and don't believe that 'most' people would. Maybe I'm just some
'natural flyer' but I seriously doubt it.
Oz/Crash Lander

"Crash Lander" wrote in message
...
"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
news
One thing which helps is to accelerate your training. 90 hours over 2.5
years is 3 hours a month. It is hard to make much progress at that rate,
because you tend to forget things in that week or 10 days between
lessons.

People make this comment all the time, and I'm sorry, but I don't
necessarily agree with it. I'm not going for my PPL, rather, I'm going for
my R.A. certificate, which is our (Australia) equivalent of the US Sport
class. Due to budget and family constraints, I cannot fly more than once a
week, and only on weekends. Some weekends the weather is bad all weekend,
so I don't get to fly. I've got 4.9 hours total now, which I know isn't
much, but I started back in September, and can say that I haven't
experienced any lessons that have required me to 're-learn' anything
before progressing. My instructor says I'm progressing very well, and she
estimates I'll be solo in about another 4-5 hours at the rate I'm going.
With only 4.9 hours under my belt, in 2 months, I've got 16 landings and
18 take offs in the bag!
Whilst I agree, some people may forget things in the gap between classes,
I haven't, and don't believe that 'most' people would. Maybe I'm just some
'natural flyer' but I seriously doubt it.
Oz/Crash Lander

What you most likely forget is touch or feel. Back when you were a new
driver, did you ever go a week or maybe a month when you didn't get behind
the wheel? That was my situation in college - I didn't have a car, so I
could sometimes go for weeks or months between opportunities to drive. When
I did get back behind the wheel, it was obvious to me that my skills had
regressed and it took a couple of trips before I got "back in the groove".

The same thing applies to flying. You forget the subtle points and lose the
fine motor skills when you're away from it. If you're a new aviator, it
takes less time to lose "the touch". If you have more experience, it takes
longer before your touch diminishes, but I assure you, it does...

And maybe you are a natural flyer. Half the people in the world have above
average motor skills, after all. ;-)

Good luck with your training...

KB

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
news
What you most likely forget is touch or feel. Back when you were a new
driver, did you ever go a week or maybe a month when you didn't get behind
the wheel? That was my situation in college - I didn't have a car, so I
could sometimes go for weeks or months between opportunities to drive.
When I did get back behind the wheel, it was obvious to me that my skills
had regressed and it took a couple of trips before I got "back in the
groove".

I can see how 'months' away from it could pose a problem, but not a week or
2, which is what '2 or 3 lessons a month' is.

Oz/Crash Lander

Kyle Boatright wrote:
"Crash Lander" wrote in message
...
"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
news
One thing which helps is to accelerate your training. 90 hours over 2.5
years is 3 hours a month. It is hard to make much progress at that rate,
because you tend to forget things in that week or 10 days between
lessons.

People make this comment all the time, and I'm sorry, but I don't
necessarily agree with it. I'm not going for my PPL, rather, I'm going for
my R.A. certificate, which is our (Australia) equivalent of the US Sport
class. Due to budget and family constraints, I cannot fly more than once a
week, and only on weekends. Some weekends the weather is bad all weekend,
so I don't get to fly. I've got 4.9 hours total now, which I know isn't
much, but I started back in September, and can say that I haven't
experienced any lessons that have required me to 're-learn' anything
before progressing. My instructor says I'm progressing very well, and she
estimates I'll be solo in about another 4-5 hours at the rate I'm going.
With only 4.9 hours under my belt, in 2 months, I've got 16 landings and
18 take offs in the bag!
Whilst I agree, some people may forget things in the gap between classes,
I haven't, and don't believe that 'most' people would. Maybe I'm just some
'natural flyer' but I seriously doubt it.
Oz/Crash Lander

What you most likely forget is touch or feel. Back when you were a new
driver, did you ever go a week or maybe a month when you didn't get behind
the wheel? That was my situation in college - I didn't have a car, so I
could sometimes go for weeks or months between opportunities to drive. When
I did get back behind the wheel, it was obvious to me that my skills had
regressed and it took a couple of trips before I got "back in the groove".

The same thing applies to flying. You forget the subtle points and lose the
fine motor skills when you're away from it. If you're a new aviator, it
takes less time to lose "the touch". If you have more experience, it takes
longer before your touch diminishes, but I assure you, it does...

When you have 5 hours you haven't yet had the opportunity to have
learned the subtle points, nor develop much "touch" to lose.

The less you know and the less experience you have the less skills seem
to be necessary and the easier everything seems to be... since you
haven't yet broken the surface of knowledge or skill.
-----

- gpsman

"gpsman" wrote in message
oups.com...
Kyle Boatright wrote:

When you have 5 hours you haven't yet had the opportunity to have
learned the subtle points, nor develop much "touch" to lose.

The less you know and the less experience you have the less skills seem
to be necessary and the easier everything seems to be... since you
haven't yet broken the surface of knowledge or skill.

Point taken, but not entirely agreed with. The fact remains that a pilot who
is at the circuits part of the training, regardless of how many hours he's
taken to get there, has sufficient "touch" to be able to control the
aircraft with minimal to no input from an instructor. True, the instructor
must be with the student at all times, but the idea is for the student to
actually 'fly' the aircraft, with the instructor leaving the controls alone
unless necessary to avoid an incident. The fact I'm not solo yet doesn't
mean I can't fly. I can fly, well enough for circuits at least, just perhaps
not well enough to get myself out of trouble should anything untoward
happen, hence the requirement for the instructor to be with me. Surely if a
student can get an aircraft off the ground, around a full circuit, and back
on the ground again in one piece, without the instructor touching the
controls, he has enough "touch" to lose!
Oz/Crash Lander

"Crash Lander" wrote in message
...
"gpsman" wrote in message
oups.com...
Kyle Boatright wrote:

When you have 5 hours you haven't yet had the opportunity to have
learned the subtle points, nor develop much "touch" to lose.

The less you know and the less experience you have the less skills seem
to be necessary and the easier everything seems to be... since you
haven't yet broken the surface of knowledge or skill.

Point taken, but not entirely agreed with. The fact remains that a pilot
who is at the circuits part of the training, regardless of how many hours
he's taken to get there, has sufficient "touch" to be able to control the
aircraft with minimal to no input from an instructor. True, the instructor
must be with the student at all times, but the idea is for the student to
actually 'fly' the aircraft, with the instructor leaving the controls
alone unless necessary to avoid an incident. The fact I'm not solo yet
doesn't mean I can't fly. I can fly, well enough for circuits at least,
just perhaps not well enough to get myself out of trouble should anything
untoward happen, hence the requirement for the instructor to be with me.
Surely if a student can get an aircraft off the ground, around a full
circuit, and back on the ground again in one piece, without the instructor
touching the controls, he has enough "touch" to lose!
Oz/Crash Lander

You are absolutely right about this CL. A good instructor will only fly the
airplane long enough to demonstrate something to the student then give the
airplane right back to the student. For all intent and purposes, the student
should be the one actually on the controls from startup to shutdown.
By the time you get into the pattern you should have a good foundation of
the basics and all the pattern should be is an extension of those basics
flown to tighter and closer tolerances.
A good instructor knows exactly how far to let the student fly into an
error. The exceptional instructor starts talking the student into correcting
any error on their own, without physical intervention by the instructor.
There are of course times when an instructor has to correct physically, but
this should be viewed as the exception; not the rule!
Dudley Henriques

Crash Lander wrote: brevity snip
"gpsman" wrote in message
oups.com...
Kyle Boatright wrote:

When you have 5 hours you haven't yet had the opportunity to have
learned the subtle points, nor develop much "touch" to lose.

The less you know and the less experience you have the less skills seem
to be necessary and the easier everything seems to be... since you
haven't yet broken the surface of knowledge or skill.

Point taken, but not entirely agreed with. The fact remains that a pilot who
is at the circuits part of the training, regardless of how many hours he's
taken to get there, has sufficient "touch" to be able to control the
aircraft with minimal to no input from an instructor.

Sure, no argument there. But the fact remains that the masters of
every fine skill feel the edge come off their technique after 24-48
hours. They notice that, the novice doesn't, since he hasn't yet
attained that edge.

That's why Yo-Yo Ma and his ilk still practice between gigs and can
coax better performance from inferior instruments.

You may not need his level of skill to fly, but you'd probably be best
off working toward it.

To me, flying is all about practicing precision and attention to
detail. If you can meet a master aerial agricultural sprayer ask him
to show you a GPS record of his spray patterns.
-----

- gpsman

On Sun, 5 Nov 2006 20:36:21 -0500, "Kyle Boatright"
wrote:

Half the people in the world have above
average motor skills, after all. ;-)

Well, actually, not necessarily. "Above median" I'll give you.

Rick

Well, actually, not necessarily. "Above median" I'll give you.

Well, actually, not necessarily. "At or above median" I'll give you.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:34:33 GMT, Jose
wrote:

Well, actually, not necessarily. "Above median" I'll give you.

Well, actually, not necessarily. "At or above median" I'll give you.

Jose

Touche, Jose.

Rick