flying stress

[747 forever]

Hello again,
this summer I will get to go do some flight training towards my PPL (YESSSSS!!!!!!!) and so I must plan this out now. Title says it all, how stressful is it for flying? I hoping to get a minimum of 40 hours this year and so Im wondering how much to do in a week. First thing planned was getting to the air field, cab done. But its a bit pricy so Im going to make the most of it by doing 4 hours of flying there. So if I was to do 3 days a week that would make 12 hours a week. Is that stressful? Would you not recommend me doing 4 days a week?
There isn`t much of a limit on money but its the time and how tiresome it would be.
Thanks :ok:

[Intruder]

In initial training, 1-2 hours per day of actual flight time is plenty to start. Use any other time for briefing, ground school, and study. If you can do that 3 or 4 days/week, it will be a rather full schedule.

When you get to the cross-country and solo cross-country flying, you can try for 3-4 hours (out & back).

[747 forever]

Yeah, by 4 hours its everything, (ground school time in air etc) But its still between 3 or 4 but it always depends on the weather (after all its the U.K we`re speaking of here, its weather has a reputation)

[777fly]

Don't try to do too much at a time, or it WILL be stressful. Plan to do either of the following each day: up to 2 hours airborne/ 1 hour ground studies OR 1 hour flying /up to two hours ground studies. Some bedtime reading to backup or plan ahead each day would help. More than that and you will invite the stress that you wish to avoid.

[bingofuel]

Trying to adhere to a timetable with the UK weather whilst training for your PPL will just cause you stress. Enjoy the lessons for what they are.....you are learning to fly, why rush it.

[mach5]

1 or 2 hrs a day of flying will be ok , since you are in the intial stage of flying dont exceed that.

[747 forever]

I just read that durham teesside airport might close :(
thats where Im meant to do it all and it can`t just give up like that. Anyone else here with any knowledge regarding that? There commercial aviation not so well but if they are closing it does it mean the terminal or the whole thing including G/A?

[rapidshot]

İf you are not a structural engineer there is no problem with flying at all, but if you have such a profession designing say buildings, bridges etc, try not to look at the wings while flying, so thin members which are fully optimized, especially new generation metal light airplane wing upper skin panels display all the buckling modes of plates, great experience, apart from skin 4 to 5 meters span cantilevers are joined to the fuselage with 2xfi12 bolts, unbelievable :D

[Jan Olieslagers]

It depends on your mental ability to take in and digest new learning. Myself past my best years, I often found two one hour lessons on a single day too much to absorb to full profit, even if a couple of hours apart. I made best progress at a rate of three one-hour lessons per month, or so. If your mind is young and flexible, I daresay you could manage more.
But never forget that his exercise is expensive, and should be worth its money. When driving home from training, you absolutely must feel in great joy, or your expense was less than optimal.
The prime goal of training is to get ready for the qualifying tests - but the secondary goal of fun is essential, too.

[BackPacker]

I did an intensive course at OFT (Florida) and we flew two sorties each day by default. There were a few days with just one sortie (due to weather), one with no flying (weather again) and two or three days where we did three flights per day, one of which was a night flight (circuits or XC).

Each flight had a block time of two hours, normally. Half an hour brief, an hour in the air, half an hour debrief typically. For XC flights the flight time was increased, and for the solo QXC I think I had a three- or four hour block.

This schedule was perfectly doable, but bear in mind that the only worry on my mind was flying. The apartment was a 10 minute walk from the flight school, and a further 15 minute walk was a strip with restaurants.

I also had all the theory studied beforehand, and passed most of the exams in the first week. Which is good, because from approx. flight 12 onwards we were doing navigation, which required a lot more preparation than circuits or airwork.

So between two and three one-hour flights should be doable daily. As long as you have nothing else on your mind. But don't make the mistake of doing these flights back-to-back. That's just too tiring. Make sure there's at least two hours between flights, where you can relax, digest what you learned, prepare the next flight and so forth.

[gingernut]

I think it depends on you, what else is going on your life, and what stage of the curriculum you're up to.

After an hour of circuits I was k'put-I'd have to go and have a lie down. Cross country stuff I could do all day and always found instrument stuff fascinating as well.

One thing I did discover, part of the instructors role is actually to put you under stress. - and to see how you react. I reckon this as important as any other part of airmanship.

Don't discount "down time" spent with your instructor over a brew or two. Absorb his wiseness:)

[RTN11]

You need a break between lessons for everything to sink in.

2-3 hours flying per day is fine, but not every day, and most students are pretty maxed out after 2.

Only us flying gods of instructors can manage up to 7 or 8 hours a day without letting the stress get to us :}

[Pace]

RTN11

Ferrying is normally 8-9 hrs a day ;) We are always into the fasted to solo times etc.
I wonder what the shortest zero to PPL time is? 3 weeks is common in good weather areas of the world with 2 weeks possible.
Has anyone done less?

Pace

[RTN11]

Pace - I think ferrying is less stressful, one long flight where you fly the thing, rather than 4-9 flights with someone doing their best effort to kill you every time you come anywhere near the ground. :}

I think my most stressful was 14 x 30 min flights in one day.

2-3 weeks is very achieveable, in my experience it's the ground study that lets the student down, so it only works if they pass all the exams before they start the practical training. My shortest UK PPL is around 4 months.

[Pilot.Lyons]

I passed all ground exams before doing the practical so i could focus all my time on the handling etc without heading into something like nav without some knowledge as i believe this could take longer

I tried to do as much as i could in a short time but my school could only do 1 or 2 a week and even then the weather messed up half of it.

Passed in 45 hours and ten mins!

Then the rt practical and the painful wait for my brown wallet with a piece of paper in it! .... Meant more to me than the deeds to my house though :D
!
Good luck and dont put a time scale on it.... Enjoy it... Every moment... I did and id do it again tomorrow if i wasnt skint! :(

[peterh337]

A lot of people don't enjoy training. I used to hate it, usually. Especially the endless circuits, when I just wanted to go somewhere...

Solo flights are a breath of fresh air :)

[RTN11]

Especially the endless circuits, when I just wanted to go somewhere...

How do you think the instructors feel?!? The prospect of a long nav with a land away almost makes me giddy. A ludicrous amount of a flight instructors time is spent within a 1 mile radius of the airfield.

[thing]

I did mine in four months which was reasonably concentrated. I eventually found that one lesson every two days was the best for me in terms of taking things in and enjoyment. Sometimes I would do a couple of trips a day, especially if it was a XC but I tended to be tired after that.

You may find you actually finish the course before the minimum hours so you will be hours building, I think I had about six or seven gash hours to fill up. Set yourself longish but easy navs of a couple of hours or so, I used to disappear up the Yorkshire coast. It's relaxing and 'breaks the umbilical' of flogging around the training area.

[peterh337]

How do you think the instructors feel?!? The prospect of a long nav with a land away almost makes me giddy. A ludicrous amount of a flight instructors time is spent within a 1 mile radius of the airfield.If I was an instructor, and I had a punter who has more than 2p to rub together (and perhaps 50% do) I would suggest to him (or her ;) ) that we pop over to LTQ (etc) - BUT that this will increase the cost of his PPL BUT trips like that will make him able to fly from A to B which he won't be able to do otherwise because a PPL largely banged in the circuit is virtually useless.

I would expect to get some takers...

It is not illegal to train pilots who can use their bit of paper for something half useful :)

In the FAA system, loads of pilots did their papers (especially the IR) on a long x/c journey around the USA, or doing business/etc trips around Europe. It is more cost effective than under the JAA system because you can use a freelance instructor; in the JAA system you carry the RF or FTO overhead everywhere you go. The end result is that, by and large, FAA paper holders can fly from A to B whereas JAA paper holders can fly from A to A only :)

[RTN11]

I do that when I can, but the fact is a lot of people don't make it past circuits. Either they're just not capable of landing safely and consistently, or they run out of money, or simply get frustrated with the weather.

When a good opportunity comes for a 2-300 mile round trip, even pairing students up, I'm first in line.

[foxmoth]

Like many, I did my PPL on a cadet scholarship which IIRC was based on a 4 week training time though due to wx (high pressure haze built up over time so we were sunning ourselves at the beach instead of flying) this extended a bit over. Most flyable days we flew 2-3 hrs which was fine, did the odd day with 4 hours and that was very tiring.