Thanks all, I am finding this really useful. I hope you don't mind if I keep throwing stuff onto this thread.
Originally Posted by
Pilot DAR
Let the plane tell you what it's doing first, and then you impose your control over that, rather than in spite of it!
That was one of the stranger bad habits I got into with the previous instructors. I was tentatively tweaking the throttle and the trim trying to encourage the plane do what I wanted, rather than actively controlling it. Having that pointed-out to me was the single most transformational instructor input I got. The new bloke watched for a few minutes then said, fly the damn plane, put the revs at 2300, put the nose where you want it and trim it. It sounds bizarre, but no-one had ever said that and I was being way too tentative.