Originally Posted by
double_barrel
OK, after a mere 5 hours here are my purely self-diagnosed weakpoints:
1. My taxiing is totally s$%t. I cannot seem to get the right instincts in my feet to keep it easily running straight and true.
You've done five hours and probably not that much taxiing, it'll come.
2. I am holding the yolk in a death grip rather than feeling the ailerons touching the air as I know I should be. I have spent my whole life sailing boats, I think I know just what that should feel like. Can't get there.
RELAX!
3. I am fixating on the VSI rather than the horizon.
Don't fixate on anything, ANYTHING. Look out of the window, enjoy the view, just glance in occasionally when there's something you need to look at. You should spend a lot of time looking at the real, out of the window, horizon - but even then not fixating. If you have been told to watch the ARTIFICIAL HORIZON, that is very very poor advice for every lesson of PPL training bar one, and you should not have been told that.
4. I still really have no idea what the rudder is for! I sort of randomly poke at it when I happen to see the ball has drifted off too far. Basically I 'steer' the plane with the ailerons.
You do steer with the ailerons. You're still at basic effects of controls, but this should have been, or will be, covered in briefings and the notes you've been given to read.
The last session was kind of depressing - I seem to be getting worse not better. Instructor throws mnemonics at me with no follow-up. eg "lets look at stalling for prep we use HASELL, or was that Hassle or Hassel [?]".
(1) Stalling at five hours????. Either you're winding us up, or your instructor is following a somewhat unorthodox order of lessons.
(2) Any checks should have been covered in briefings and/or training notes you've been told to run.
(3) HASELL checks are in your checklist, the aeroplane manual, the training notes, and for that matter your pre-flight briefings.
Basically either you're winding us up, or you need to change instructor and/or school.
I subsequently have no recall of what the @#$%^ 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?)
EIther you are winding us up, or your instructor is utterly incompetent.
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 ?
No it would be usual to have a formal debrief usually rather longer than five minutes, including you taking notes and him filling out your training record in your sight.
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.
The level of progress is probably fine, but what you are describing is utter incompetence in instructing - and you will quickly bed in bad habits that do you no favours. If your recall and description are true and honest, you need a new instructor - probably a new school before these bad habits bed in. Why a new school? - because schools are supposed to standardise teaching practice across all of their instructors.
[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]
And that is what flying instructors are trained to do too. So, if your descriptions are accurate, you are at a very poor school.
But I suspect I am beginning to blame the instructor for my own failings. Maybe I need to take control a bit more?
On the contrary, (a) you are not describing particular failings on the part of a student, and (b) the instructor is supposed to be the expert and controller of the teaching and learning process.
I would suggest before walking away having a closed door lengthy discussion with the school Chief Instructor - that *may* resolve things, it may not.
G