After 5 hours...
OK, after a mere 5 hours here are my purely self-diagnosed weakpoints:
1. My taxiing is totally s$%t. I cannot seem to get the right instincts in my feet to keep it easily running straight and true.
2. I am holding the yolk in a death grip rather than feeling the ailerons touching the air as I know I should be. I have spent my whole life sailing boats, I think I know just what that should feel like. Can't get there.
3. I am fixating on the VSI rather than the horizon.
4. I still really have no idea what the rudder is for! I sort of randomly poke at it when I happen to see the ball has drifted off too far. Basically I 'steer' the plane with the ailerons.
The last session was kind of depressing - I seem to be getting worse not better. Instructor throws mnemonics at me with no follow-up. eg "lets look at stalling for prep we use HASELL, or was that Hassle or Hassel [?]". I subsequently have no recall of what the @#$%^ that was meant to stand for - height, away from built-up areas, secure, who knows what else. No time to ask him to repeat and forget to review after landing when he asks 'any questions' while fiddling with his phone. (OK, I just googled it. E is for engine, A might be for airframe. What does that mean? engine still running, airframe still there?)
Would it be usual to expect a 5 minute 'debrief' after landing to allow me to go over what we did and perhaps scribble some notes ?
Is this normal kind of progress? After hours 3 and 4 I felt real progress as I gained confidence and became more aware of what was happening. Now wondering if this is going to work.
[In the past I taught sailing on very complex boats to yachtmaster level. I would always start a session with review of where we have got to and end with a review of what we learned today. And on a boat the pace is slower with time to discuss each action as you do it]
But I suspect I am beginning to blame the instructor for my own failings. Maybe I need to take control a bit more?
What do you guys reckon?