006 - Setbacks

This whole flying lessons thing is taking a REALLY long time... And some of it is just frustrating. Let's get caught up and talk about why learning to fly can be a frustratingly slow process. ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

I took my medical flight test! In this episode I talk about how it went. What was the process like? What did I have to do? What was the end result? Let's find out! ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

The FAA wants proof that I can fly a plane even though I'm blind in one eye. I finally have the medical flight test scheduled to try and prove it to them. Today I'll talk about what that test is supposed to look like, why it exists, and how to prepare. ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

It's been a while since I made an episode. Things got quiet in my training for a while, but they are moving again and I'm here with an update! I promise I'm going to do these on a more weekly basis... ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

I recently had a close call that gave me a bit of a scare. It took me a while to decide to make and post this episode, because... well... I was embarrassed. I'm sharing it with everyone so that we can all learn about getting right back on the horse.  ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

In this episode I follow up on my setback from last time, and I talk about "chair flying"... what is it? And why should people (myself included) take it more seriously? ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

In this episode I talk about how I had some setbacks in my training, why that might've happened, how it is making me struggle, and what I'm doing about it.  ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

I finally made a landing all by myself! So this week I decided to take some time to think back on my training so far, and what could I have done differently to maybe have made this landing sooner in my training.  ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

Today I talk about how talking to myself seems to be helping me improve my flying. It can be very frustrating when you're practicing and training but you don't feel like you're making any progress. That's the situation I've been in for a little while. I've done a lot of takeoffs and landings and I just keep making the same mistakes over and over, and sometimes make mistakes I haven't made in a long time. My flight instructor had a hunch and asked me to do something that changed everything.  ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.

When your plane goes from safely and securely on the ground to flying in the air, that transition can actually be pretty challenging. Just a moment ago your tires were on the ground and you were in pretty good control of where you wanted to go. Suddenly you're soaring through this fluid atmosphere that has it's own ideas of how you should be moving around. Transitioning from that familiar ground-state to riding the air currents can be... challenging.  ---------------- DISCLAIMER: I am a student of aviation, and a new one at that. Therefore, I make no claims to being an authority of any kind on the topics that I talk about. I am only speaking from my limited, biased perspective as a student who is learning and making mistakes. Therefore, none of what I say should be taken as fact or advice to be followed. Double-check me and let me know when I get it wrong.