If flying is not "floating your boat" then do something else.
But flying did “float my boat” for a number of years, and still does.
Air police. I’m not sure whether you’re deliberately trolling, are just generally a negative or miserable person with a defeatist attitude, or genuinely trying to offer advice. What you’re saying would possibly make sense to someone who has taken one trial lesson and hated being up there. Sure, this experience after a 30 minute flight would probably suggest that they’re not suited to flying. But you’re ignoring the fact that I followed the RAF EFT course, which includes more advanced flying than the PPL syllabus. I did numerous sorties which included solo aerobatics, all without a hitch and no hint of nerves from me. I would have thought after over 50 hours doing this, my RAF instructors, or indeed myself, would have discovered that flying “wasn’t for me”.
I am hoping you have studied the Human Factors & Performance aspect of the PPL, but you still got in an aircraft as PIC after an argument. I can see how an old hand might do that but since you are still in training, the warnings about such dangers ought to be fresh in your mind.
I have studied it now. However, at the time of the incident I hadn’t yet taken that exam.
The picture you are painting is not that of a born Aviator, that's for sure. I'm no trick cyclist, but a blind man running for a bus can see you are not suited to this.
As has already been mentioned, what utter tosh. Sure, some people have the aptitude to be a pilot more than others, but I would be wary of anybody who goes around thinking they’re a “born aviator”, because one day they might come unstuck. I’d never had a problem with heights when in aircraft and to be honest, it’s not a major issue with buildings now.
The last flight I did was my XC Solo and you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for three days after that. It went without a hitch and I didn’t have any issues, yet according to you I should have given up as soon as I landed after my tricky flight! The problem is that it’s been so long since April that naturally I’m wary of it happening again. This is a perfectly natural reaction. And let me remind you that the point of this thread was about the validity of my exams. The fact that I was asking about that and not about being nervous should tell you that it’s not exactly something that’s eating away at me. It’s just an extra concern that I’d rather wasn’t there.
I find it hard to believe anyone learning something like flying never had any wobbly moments, and they can seem a lot bigger than they are.
I seem to remember reading a couple of threads on here where quite a few professional helicopter pilots expressed occasionally having feelings of vertigo when in certain situations.
Striker, one very positive feature of your story is that you have talked it through with your instructors, who both know you, and have seen a lot of other students.
As they felt OK with further solos, (and presumably also whether to contact your AME), it sounds to me like a good decision will be reached.
Exactly. I spoke to three different instructors the next day and explained exactly what had happened. They were quite happy to let me go flying solo again just 20 hours after the incident. I don’t think they, or myself, would have put me in that position if they thought it was going to happen again. Like I’ve said, I’ve been flying many times since then, but after I did my XC solo qualifier, it was my remaining exams that I had to focus on because my instructor said I was ready for the skills test. The problem is that as it’s been so long since I last flew, I’ve got what happened at the back of my mind. But there’s no question that I’m going to just give up. If I was going to do that I would have done it last year.
Anyway, I passed my remaining exams so I've just got the skills test to do. Interestingly, even my instructor thought the exam validity is from the exact date rather than the end of the month of the month you took the first exam in. This did put doubt in my mind, but it seems to have been confirmed here that I've interpreted LASORS correctly.
Thanks anyway for the input.
