Interesting thread this....I almost gave up at the beginning of this year. After gaining my PPL in May 2001 I felt it was a huge achievement and really wanted to fly. Then I started a couple of flights solo and began to feel less and less confident. The time between flights grew longer and I just began to worry about every little thing....engine failure, getting lost, crashing on landing etc etc. I was very happy to fly with other PPLs but not solo. I didn't feel that I could deal with any emergency situations.
Anyway, I met a fellow new PPL outside the flying school one day and we started to fly together and that helped. I had to make a decision whether I really wanted to continue even though I was beginning to find excuses not to go flying....sounds daft I know! I bit the bullet and forced myself to get up there solo and now I think I have cracked the nervous feeling. Now we have both bought a share in a simple single and now am looking forward to learning more skills. The others members of the group are all more experienced than me and the group fly together very regularly.
I notice AOPA are introducing a scheme similar the gliding system of bronze, silver, gold and platinum wings. I think this is an excellent idea and I look forward to more details in due course. I would like to embark upon this to give some focus to self improvement in my flying. AOPA's General Aviation Feb 2003 issue Page 5 mentions about it.
I must say that having been granted my PPL I felt that I had achieved a very basic standard of flying. This was different from what I thought I would feel like at the beginning of the PPL training.
Lastly on the subject of fly-ins, because I am now outside the school environment I am looking for fly-ins to go to that would stretch me. There is a Private Flyers PPRuNe fly-in at Duxford (5th April) that I am planning to attend so maybe PPRuNe is taking the place of the traditional club fly-in.
Andy
P.S. I got my first "post skills test" rating renewal today
