I too was told in the early stages to give up, and not very gently either. Fact is I didn't have a clue what was expected of me or how I was progressing if at all; and was scared to make a twit of myself. I never had a single pre-flight briefing, and during my CPL the only debrief I got was "that was a load of cr@p". It wasn't until I did the instructor rating that I realised how lacking my early training had been. eg I spent 10 hours in the circuit before my favourite instructor realised I couldn't land, because my seat was too low and all I could see in the flare was instruments. One cusion later and bingo. I wasn't so stupid after all!
Being a stubborn old bag I kept at it, and when I was studying for my CPL writtens, the aero club had a book running on how many times I would fail them before I gave up. Nobody won anything.
Is it a girl thing? Do the males assume we're rubbish at flying before we start and of course that rubs off onto us?
There's no doubt that us girls learn very differently from the guys, and stereotyping can get in the way of our progress. Low self esteem is a big problem.
Scottishburd, please give your friend a hug from me, I know how she feels, she's not alone. Us girls tend to be thinking of so many things at once it's difficult to focus on just one thing. But that's the trick, to leave everything else on the ground and concentrate only on the flying.
I have a teenage girl learning to fly with me, she gets a bit wobbly sometimes and then takes a deep breath and says "I can do this!" and she has her confidence back again.
Simple, but very effective.
[ 11 August 2001: Message edited by: Charlie Foxtrot India ]