Thanks MoP, that cheers me up!
Pasta. I have been thinking through the sailing/flying thing, and I am sure you are right. I am unconsciously expecting to feel and handle a Cessna like a boat. But as you say, there are some huge differences - on a boat the surface in the air is 100s of times bigger than an aircraft's control surface and the rudder is in a much denser medium. You manage a boat by balancing the forces; and when maneuvering by anticipating and 'meeting' the forces. Looking at the thread on control column flailing, it dawned on me that it is physically impossible to move the 'control surfaces' on a boat like that. So even though the aircraft is not responding to all the thrashing around, the surfaces are presumably moving around in response to al those inputs, and meeting little resistance. So clearly, as someone said earlier, the aircraft controls will feel way 'mushier' than a boat's and I just need to focus on what its doing now and what inputs do I need to make to make it do what I want. It sounds trivial, but that is totally different from a sailing boat, especially a big, heavy, powerful boat like I am used to sailing.
One interesting point, when banking or turning I instinctively want to stop the maneuver with a counter-turn or counter-bank, as you must on a boat. My instructors tell me that is wrong, I should just go back to the neutral position and the change of attitude instantly stops. My muscles are beginning to believe that!
On the upside, my sailing background means I can instinctively turn onto a course, use a compass and chart and cope with all that nav stuff. I am somewhat bemused by flying's strange radio procedures, and keep slipping back to the 'wrong' order of callsigns, but at least I am comfortable with using a VHF.
Hour 6 was a huge improvement. I turned-up early dug out the physical checklists and conducted my own pre and post flight brief! In the air I focussed on not over-controlling and keeping a delicate touch. Hour 7 tomorrow!