A familiar tale of woe...

[ratsarrse]

No doubt this will be familiar to some, many, or all of you. Maybe I should be posting this in the Agony Aunt Forum! Well, the thing is, it feels like I'm never going to get to fly! According to my logbook, my last lesson was on the 6th June. I work a fairly odd shift pattern - a week of days, a week of nights, then a week off. So I basically do nothing but work for a couple of weeks, then have a full week with weekends on either side of it to go drinking, do dull householdy things and go flying. Last week would ordinarily have been a 'flying' week, but my instructor was on holiday and I'm not sure I'm ready to fly with anyone else just yet. I've checked my diary, and I'm working solidly from now until the last week in August (covering people's summer bloody holidays). So, no flying until the end of August! I was just starting to feel like I was in the same postcode as getting the hang of it, but it's going to be an enforced 3 month layoff. It's almost going to be like starting from scratch by the time I get anywhere near a plane again. Aaaarrrrgh!

Just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening.

[flyingwelshman]

DONT STRESS!!!

There are loads of people, for whome it took a while to arrange the time to get the flying in. relax.

Took me two years to get my licence, yet I did it in almost the minimum time..... several months off, a couple of times - but dont worry.

Top Tip: When in the bath - think though a skill, or a cuirtcut. THink though everything you need to do and in what order...... now you cant tell us you dont have time to have a bath!!!!!

As for different instructors - it shoudnt be an issue. Check a post from earlier in the week where the subject was discussed a little.

KEEP SMILING

FW:D :D :D :D :D :) :)

[Maxflyer]

During the course of my PPL training I went with several instructors. I found this very rewarding. They all impart their own helpful tips and at no time did I lose confidence. I know that there are sometimes too many cooks, but in this case I found that my training benefited from different input. Considering the training they have had to get their instructors ticket I'd suggest trying to spread the load. If you find you don't hit it off with another instructor then you can revert to your original teacher.

Give it a try - you might find it worthwhile.

[Julian]

Had the same problem. my day is very time consuming and can be a nightmare on freetime. Having said that managing to fly in the evenings at the mo :o)

I got my PPL by doing 2 x 2 week stints, flew 62hours in total and got my PPL. Then the real expense started......

[Hairyplane]

Hang on rattie,

Lets revisit your original post here -

drinking - householdy things - flying.

I guess from your handle and your no.1 priority that alcohol is your no.1 leisure pursuit and flying a poor third.

Unless the flying is also an all-consuming passion (sorry about the pun...)) then you will struggle to get through it and - having got through it - will probably give it up before you quit drinking.

Take a few tips -

Drink and drive - thus cutting down the wasted time getting to the pub,

Get yourself a domestic appliance - (!)

Get to the airfield (not the battle cruiser) at opening time and stay until closing.

Choose a school with a bar. In that way you can carry on drinking after you've lost your medical through...yes..you've got it.

(No offence Rattie - all light-hearted stuff.)

HP

[ratsarrse]

Thanks for the tips, guys!

I am always worried when things are going well, it usually means that the bad stuff is accumulating into a large lump of the brown stuff ready to land on your head in one stinking mass. I had the same feeling with flying - it was going too well. Guaranteed good weather for every day that I had booked (well, ok, there were a couple of occasions when marginal weather stopped me flying, but I'd reckoned on a higher percentage), getting on well with my instructor, the actual flying going pretty well (not having some of the problems that other people seem to have), and some nice ego-massaging praise about general airmanship and technique (which may or may not be actually true, but it made me feel good about things, being generally prone to quiet self-doubt..)
All going swimmingly in fact, so it's just immensely frustrating to have it snatched from your grasp by mundane realities of work.

Not one to entirely subscribe to the half-empty philosophy though. It's an opportunity! Albeit a heavily disguised one. Plenty of time to practise bath-bound circuits and in-car R/T and checklists! Flight-planning the route to work. Waste time at work studying for exams...as long as the earthly delights of PPRuNe don't distract me too much.

Oh and Hairyplane, just for the record, alcohol isn't my number one priority. It is a factor in one of my priorities though - actually getting to see some of my friends occasionally. I freely admit that in the past I used to indulge quite frequently in various forms of chemical recreation, but my life has moved on. I like your idea of drinking and driving, though. I think i might have to try that one. ;)

[VFR800]

Dude,

I really feel for you, I know where you're coming fvrom. I'm self-employed and therefore time is the taxman's money! My home airfield is shut (for training) this weekend and next for airshows. So no flying!

I've arranged with the guys I work for to take each Tuesday afternoon off, but with the s@*t weather we've had, I've ended up wasting the time orf (apart from revising for ground exams).

But I've got the bug, so I just keep going ;)

[Genghis the Engineer]

You'll know you're an experienced aviator when this ceases to trouble you !

G

[zlinz142]

Well if it makes you feel any better you're probably doing much better than I.

I started out last September with my first trial lesson. Waited about 3 months for a break in the weather for another trial lesson (so I could compare training clubs). Took me another month to sort out the finances so I could book a 5hrs up front.

So I thought - great, club chosen, a/c chosen, finances sorted and I work flexible hours so I can nip off when work is light. So guess what - nearly every week I've had time I can go flying, but either the wx is naff, the instructors aren't available (and there are 2 I fly with) or the a/c isn't available.

I then get dumped on Jury Service for 6.5 weeks! and now I'm back at work there's 6.5 weeks of work to catch up on aargh!!!

That means I've still only logged 3.7hrs.:{

Glad I've only paid up front for 5hrs - its a real pain that my nearest flying club is only licensed to 6.00pm - means I can't even get some time in in the evening.

Thank goodness for flight sims (only thing to keep me sane - and practice those few things I've learn't so far)

Neil