u/Complete-Charge-5167

One of my favorite moments as a CFI so far

One thing I’ve started noticing as a newer CFI is that a lot of students really aren’t struggling because they’re “bad” at flying.

Most of the time they’re just overwhelmed and trying so hard to do everything perfectly that they end up overthinking every little thing.

I had a student the other day getting pretty frustrated with landings. Every time we turned final you could kinda feel the stress level go up in the airplane. Chasing airspeed, forcing the flare, trying to make every landing smooth instead of just flying the airplane.

After a few laps we stopped for a minute and just talked through what the airplane was actually doing and what they should be looking for instead of trying to force every little control input.

Within a couple landings things honestly started looking way better.

Not because they magically became an amazing pilot in 10 minutes, but because they relaxed a little and finally understood what was actually happening instead of fighting the airplane the whole way down.

Those are honestly the moments that make teaching really fun.

Anybody else have something in training that randomly clicked way later than it should’ve?

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u/Complete-Charge-5167 — 14 days ago

Came in a bit hot on short final in a Piper PA-28 Warrior and could already tell it was going to turn into a long float.

Decided to go missed rather than try to salvage it.

Curious where everyone’s personal cutoff is for calling the go-around — do you guys have a hard rule or more of a feel thing?

u/Complete-Charge-5167 — 23 days ago
▲ 0 r/u_Complete-Charge-5167+1 crossposts

A few weeks ago I had a student who'd run through the Sporty's question bank multiple times. Great practice test scores. Looked ready.

Then I started asking questions that weren't in the bank.

He struggled — not because he wasn't smart, but because he'd spent all his time memorizing answers instead of understanding them. He knew what to bubble in. He didn't know why.

Rote memorization gets you through the written. It won't get you through your oral. And it won't help you in the cockpit when something unexpected happens.

I made a 20-minute video breaking down the 5 topics that I see trip up student pilots most consistently — and more importantly, why the standard advice for studying each one doesn't actually work:

  • Performance calculations
  • Weather
  • Airspace
  • FAA Regulations
  • Weight & Balance

Hope it helps someone: https://youtu.be/mmDx-IUBJ-c

If you want live help on any of these — my group ground school sessions are $25. First one free with code FIRSTFREE.

u/Complete-Charge-5167 — 27 days ago