What I am having a very BIG problem with (and this is not the first time this has manifested iself) is that I cannot seem to treat my instructor as a student and have trouble treating the 'give back' sessions as real lessons. I have never been good at artificial scenarios and perform far better at the real thing. The result if that the whole experience is far too mechanical and I am not able to relax.
Ah yes, that takes me right back to my course. There I was, trying to take seriously the fact that I was supposed to be teaching the effects of controls...to a 30,000 hour instructor who flew helicopters better than I ever will (he'd started in his teens and was around 60; I started too late in life to ever get that kind of experience). Sure, it's crazy and unreal. And you're not the only one who hates role-playing. But it does get you used to flying and talking...and listening out on the radio and noting where you are, all at the same time. Because what happens once you're doing it for real - at least it did for me - is that the flying and teaching goes OK, but you get lost and miss radio calls! So a lot of what the FI course is about is just learning to go through the motions of doing more things at once than you ever believed a human being could....and without someone possibly trying to kill you as well (that comes later).
Sounds like it's going well. Keep telling us about it. If it's any help, I did a diary thread about my FI course a few years ago. It's on Rotorheads somewhere, but it's hard to find because it got incorporated in another thread later on....come to think of it, maybe just as well, from my point of view.
