As a student on course, how do you know how well your mates are doing?
I think that is the most aposite comment. I remember coming back from a solo sector recce and chatting to my mate.
Me: "It was a bloody nightmare I had no idea what I was doing and kept worrying about hitting all the other aircraft!"
Him: "It was worse for me, I was lost the whole time I was airborne"
In pops one of the other guys, when asked he said "No snags, piece of piss, I don't know what you guys are on about."
About a week later the guy that was 'doing so well' was chopped. We thought the game was up because if he was doing so well we had no chance. It didn't quite turn out like that. Later I realised that the guys that thought they were not doing so well just had the extra capacity to notice what was really going on. The guys that thought it was a breeze and got chopped were maxed out.
I think the best advice I would give to the guys going through the process is to try and chill a little. Easy to say but I put almost insurmountable pressure on myself and felt like I scraped everything until I was operational. Then I did things that were far harder, with comfort, because I actually had a little belief. Almost all the pressure was self induced and although we had a lot of laughs outside the aircraft, it was all just a bit too serious in the jet. As an instructor in years to come I always tried to take the pressure off to see how the guy could really perform and try and spark a little bit of self confidence.