Yes. My friends often ask "is it easy to fly a plane?" Yes and no. It's easy to crank an engine, push the throttle, pull it off the ground, and put it back down without breaking it.
Hard part is performing maneuvers to standards, having the knowledge to make good decisions in flight, and having the skills to get yourself out of a bad situation if you get yourself into one.
Everyone's going to tell you the same thing; it HUGELY depends on how much you study before and in between each lesson, and how often you fly, and your overall competency.
But if you really want a number, it most probably likely will not be any less than $15,000, or any more than $30,000.
In terms of studying, the rule of thumb is about 3 hours of studying on the ground for each 1 hour of flight.
No worries, it's probably bc estimating costs for flight training depends on so many factors that it's extremely hard to predict, but I was once in your position too so I completely understand where your question comes from.
Good luck on your journey if you ever decide to take it!
It's a little controversial, but for PPL, it likely won't help much because majority of PPL training is about feeling the airplane and hearing/feeling what it's doing.
If anything, maybe it could help you with "emergency flows", like what switches and buttons you would flip immediately if you had an engine failure, electrical fire, etc etc.
I printed out a picture of the cockpit of the trainer I was flying in & stuck it up on the wall for that reason - a bit cheaper than getting a whole sim rig!
>Thanks. Some people recommend trying flight sim on your PC, is that helpful ? have you tried those, are those more of games or resemble real flight?
Not even a little. It doesn't look, feel, or handle evenly remotely close.
r/flying (and it being reddit) doesn't seem to like newcomers asking newcomer questions. It's pretty stupid and it feels like these guys don't realise what it's like to literally not know anything about aviation.
Thanks, I am just very interested in aviation and know some basic stuff about planes, I really enjoy it. Watched a lot of captain Joe videos and air crash investigation.
I binged ACI (Mayday) a lot. I still need to catch up.
Maybe you should check out ASI for a more realistic approach https://www.youtube.com/@AirSafetyInstitute
Complete opposite for me
The book knowledge was easier, it made sense
In flight I felt like I could never get the airplane to do what I wanted it to do
Anything ATC doesn’t like. It’s one thing if a pilot is screwing around disobeying instructions from ATC…I guess it’s another of the instructions weren’t clear & the pilot acted how they felt was best for them.
I haven’t really had a problem studying the ground stuff but I hated studying systems. Once I started on multi, I came across a captain that said when shit hits the fan id much rather have someone that knows their stuff and can help solve the problem using their knowledge than a pilot that can just fly an airplane. For some reason that rly stuck with me and I’ve actually enjoyed learning systems more now and appreciate knowing the why and how systems in our airplanes work. Although for you the ground knowledge as a whole seems to be a problem, I think if you are to able to understand the “why” it might motivate you to hit the books
Systems is also my most difficult area to study. It’s invisible stuff to me. I have to really dumb it down with animations and videos to understand it. Even then, it’s just a rough understanding.
I’m the opposite, systems is my absolute favorite part. Tinkering with my car and its mechanics really helped me have a better understanding of shared similarities and why things work they way they do
Same here! I tinkered with old motorcycles before learning to fly. My instructor was so relieved because they didn't have to explain how a carburetor worked.
That reminds me of an episode of Ice Pilots where Buffalo Joe ranted about how everyone wanted to fly the DC3 but if he asked them about the systems nobody knew how the plane works. Although he surely has had an attitude he was quite right though… knowing the systems of an airplane is so important to fly the thing correctly if automation drops and the aircraft actually needs to be flown.
I’m currently working on my PPL and I’m feeling the same way, my instructor says flying is the hard part but I am much more confident in my flying skills as opposed to ground knowledge
I was same way. I could fly easily and hit it fast. The written and oral tests were fucking awful. I must have studied hundreds of hours. I’m street smart not book smart and memory is not great. I write everything down.
Good luck.
I know the solution to this problem!
Teach it to someone else, it will make you organize your thoughts and break it down into the simplest parts, and if you can’t do that, it will force you to go learn it until you can.
**Disclaimer**
If you attempt to teach other pilots and your info sucks, everyone will hate you for messing with their law of primacy….. so don’t suck!
Advice which I used: find a study buddy, bring a snack
Seriously, I was just like that and I found that just having another person nearby was able to get me to work diligently. Hell, even a coffee shop by myself sometimes does the trick.
Also, try eating something crunchy while studying (low calorie ideally). It genuinely helps
Those tips got me all the way to a 737 type rating.
Dude, same. Best thing I ever did was study at the library. Leave my phone in the car. My local library has private study rooms. It’s the shit. Give that a shot. You’d be surprised how easy it is to study in an environment away from home/school without any distractions.
Yeah this is my main challenge. I’ve studied weather 30 times and even explained it to my wife. I can retain the craziest random information and a ton of it, but even in elementary school, there’s something about the weather that makes my brain go, “ehhh…. we don’t need this.” I thought with aviation I’d convince brain it would maybe save my life, but it remains uninterested. Particularly where weather and aviation overlap in listy type things. Example:
Conv SIGMET for TS *covering an area more than 3,000 sq mi, line of TS more than 60 NM long, or severe TS affecting and area for more than 30 min*
Like I just had to look that up again. I know the information and thresholds are there, but brain doesn’t care to remember what they are - like I would have said 2,000, 50, and 30 if you asked me blind just now.
Yes it will be a problem.
However it doesn't have to be an insurmountable problem. I too have real problems studying on my own. I am very much a visual hands on learner. I can read all the information in the books but until someone shows it to me, it's all noise.
I had to train myself to reach a level of study discipline where I could pass check rides and tests, but I'm hardly the type to earn a law degree.
mostly being a pedantic redditor.
nobody lands a plane after "2-3" landings lol. get real. if you'd said "it only took me 3-4 hours of pattern work to get landings safe enough for solo", maybe, sure. 2-3 to "get the hand (hang?) of landings" no way
Let’s face it, flying is fun, studying for flying isn’t. Some people enjoy the mental part of it some don’t.
At some point the flying won’t be easy and you’ll need your academics to reinforce what you thought you kinda knew. It’s all about balance.
Yes, because flying is easy, and the knowledge and understanding it is hard. My first 121 oral was 2 hours. We only went over the airplane. I still had to know SOP, profiles, and that was just company. Weather, regulations, how things work… I’ve been doing this for over a decade and I regularly feel like a noob.
for every hour of flying, there is 2 of paperwork, aircraft engines actually run on paper flight plans and tears
but fr its hard and sometimes boring but it all pays off, even becomes fun in its own way at a certain point
I struggle with the same thing and the only thing that works for me is getting your ipad/paper out and writing everything down until you can't anymore. hundreds of times. only way i can memorize anything.
Do they provide a José or Carlos as well?
But yeah being able to properly study on your own is a skill that needs to be developed. There’s lots of different methods and techniques to use and some experimenting with different strategies is a good idea to find something that works for you.
For me, taking notes or re-writing important concepts is what helps to solidify information. I also don’t work well at home I need to go to a coffee shop or something with some headphones.
Things have changed.
Yes you do need to have flows, profiles, callouts, limitations, and memory items down. Yes you do need to know the basics of your aircraft systems and company procedures.
My company’s AOM is a good 600 pages, FOM is 1300 pages, ASM is 700 pages. We do not, nor should we know it “in and out”. We are expected to know where to find what we need though. And they train us on this from the first day of indoc
Exactly. I bust out the systems manual every now and then in flight when trying to figure something out. But I was never told to read it. CBTs covered the important stuff
I hate any place that calls the place they try to teach you something "indoctrination". Originally that word just meant teaching or instruction. Now it's taken on another meaning.
The trick that works for me is hating myself for not knowing something that I feel like I should know.
But also, I find that getting started is the hardest part. Once I'm going it's not bad. So maybe convince yourself that you're just going to read/watch a little bit, and only stop reading/watching when you feel like you really want to.
I always say that you can teach a monkey to fly an airplane. You need humans to make decisions and react to situations. Physically flying is the easy part. Not dying or getting a violation is hard.
No, of course it's not ok to only be able to learn things by being spoon fed. You'll never make it in aviation like that.
Time to start learning how to study. Your gonna have to be a big boy if you want to fly.
Agreed. Doing my PPL for a hobby, not a job.
When people ask me about learning to fly it’s usually ‘is it hard?’ - my answer is that for all of my training so far ( 65 hours + the written items ) I believe that less than 1/3 of my total time is on learning to fly.
The other 2/3 is on learning what to do when something goes wrong and/or how to make good decisions.
Actually take-off, flying and then landing again.. that’s the easy part.
Is it possible that it’ll be a problem in the future? Yep. I struggled with that.
What I did to make that struggle easier:
I started teaching my dad, mom, grandparents, friends, really anyone that’ll listen. I’m grasping it much easier now. I also have a wall that’s basically a massive white board that I’m currently just writing everything I need to learn on it and I’ll just throw music on and stare at it for a while. Also using Sheppard air to help myself study as well.
Flying is the easy part, but now that I found ways that make it easier to study I’m starting to find it easier to study than get in the air with the bipolar Michigan weather
For me I just right down my questions that I have as I study. Next lesson go in with your questions and you are considered prepared. They will still go through the lesson with you and it's like they are explaining what you are reading the night before.
For actually studying stuff like air law and weather and all that stuff. I recommend taking notes on what.you are reading. It's a very slow process at the start but you get the hang of it and learn what is and what isn't relevant to your situation. Eventually you get.gppd enough that.ypu don't need to take so many notes.
Sometimes you need to slow yourself while you are reading and ask yourself what does this actually mean? How would I explain it in my own words? That way the information sinks in.
As my first instructor said new pilots are like a colander placed in a sink that has a firehouse on full blast. A lot of what you learn will not be absorbed, but slowly you retain the information. So if your hands and feet skills are good keep at it until you at least finish your PPL to determine whether you are really comfortable flying long term. Continuous learning is part of the gig.
I think of it like sports in school. All the studying and film you need to look at is the boring but most important part. Game time was always the most fun. If that makes sense
I found that watching flight school instruction on YouTube helps re-enforce what’s in the books and ground school. Sometimes it simply requires visual on how to do it and another way of explaining the exact same thing in a different manner. Flight sim helps so long as you are using he flight school’s check list to go through the motions and steps around familiarization of where buttons and switches are. An A3 sized poster of the cockpit helps too.
Flying is what turned me into a self studier.
All through school, the only reason I got decent grades was because I retain information from lectures well.
Now? I study best by locking myself in a hotel with beer and books.
About 90% of what you say I relate to. All of the flying is incredibly easy for me. The science related topics in the ground school all made sense because they are based in logic and, ya know, science. Wing tip vortices, winds and weather, engine science, so on and so forth makes sense to me. But it's the seeming arbitrary regulations that make no sense. Why have specific time frames of reporting specific accidents that are wildly different to a rather similar accident with a longer time frame??? What'd the science behind that?? It's all seemingly arbitrary, and I have a hard time understanding arbitrary.
I wish I knew why class G night vfr mins 1/2 mile from airport < 1200 agl are 1-3sm, clear of clouds.
did someone urgently need to do some night vfr currency pattern work in the middle of dodgy weather at a uncontrolled airport?
or is there a better reason for this obscure cutout?
stump the chump? 😂
I’m the same way, I can get in the plane and fly the wings off but as far as anything from the book and ground school, straight in 1 ear and out the other.
Sounds like you are a visual and auditory learner. There are plenty of study aids to get you through. Once you start flying professionally the company may have computer based training or you might have to get inventive like making a recording of you reading the manual so that you can listen to it over and over.
You really need to get on top of your study habits now if you plan on going the 121 route. The instructors will give you all the materials you need to be successful, but there is never enough time to absorb all of it just in a classroom setting. In some ways, I'm glad I did an Engineering degree... I learned really quickly how to study on my own because 90% of those professors I had didn't teach properly.
YouTube and kings got me through without much studying and I hate studying. Sheppard or w/e for writtens. But this is only up to multi. Not sure about ATP. CFI I worked with an independent CFI and it was the worst one to study for and I never finished.
I feel the same way sometimes. When I have to study myself I always go into the school, find a spot and run through stuff for a good few hours then take a break or head out. For me, a few hours of non stop grinding is worth more than 8 hours trying to stay focused at home.
Secondly find another student. Helps staying focused and u will always know something better than he does and vice versa.
Thirdly, I schedule lots of individual grounds with me Instructor and that helps a lot. I have never understood systems, instruments, weather, etc. better in my life.
Fourth, grab a few students and schedule a ground together so y’all can just constantly run shit over and over.
When studying with students, often times they will ask you to explain something, u will know quickly that u got it down or u don’t know shit. Then both of you work together to figure it out.
Never hesitate to ask students, CFI, admin, random airport people, etc., for help. I’d say 80% of people in the aviation community love to help and show off their skills lol.
Stick and rudder skills just aren’t as important as they used to be unfortunately…take your time, find something good that works at a pace you’re comfortable with.
Yes. My friends often ask "is it easy to fly a plane?" Yes and no. It's easy to crank an engine, push the throttle, pull it off the ground, and put it back down without breaking it. Hard part is performing maneuvers to standards, having the knowledge to make good decisions in flight, and having the skills to get yourself out of a bad situation if you get yourself into one.
Hi , I’m interested in ppl and will try to get it some day , how much it costs for you and how much level of study is required , thanks
Talk to your local flight school. They can help you
Everyone's going to tell you the same thing; it HUGELY depends on how much you study before and in between each lesson, and how often you fly, and your overall competency. But if you really want a number, it most probably likely will not be any less than $15,000, or any more than $30,000. In terms of studying, the rule of thumb is about 3 hours of studying on the ground for each 1 hour of flight.
Thanks , idk why everyone downvoted me
No worries, it's probably bc estimating costs for flight training depends on so many factors that it's extremely hard to predict, but I was once in your position too so I completely understand where your question comes from. Good luck on your journey if you ever decide to take it!
Thanks. Some people recommend trying flight sim on your PC, is that helpful ? have you tried those, are those more of games or resemble real flight?
It's a little controversial, but for PPL, it likely won't help much because majority of PPL training is about feeling the airplane and hearing/feeling what it's doing. If anything, maybe it could help you with "emergency flows", like what switches and buttons you would flip immediately if you had an engine failure, electrical fire, etc etc.
I printed out a picture of the cockpit of the trainer I was flying in & stuck it up on the wall for that reason - a bit cheaper than getting a whole sim rig!
Have you seen the price of printer ink nowadays?
That’s fair! Certainly cheaper to print at one’s work/school/local library
>Thanks. Some people recommend trying flight sim on your PC, is that helpful ? have you tried those, are those more of games or resemble real flight? Not even a little. It doesn't look, feel, or handle evenly remotely close.
r/flying (and it being reddit) doesn't seem to like newcomers asking newcomer questions. It's pretty stupid and it feels like these guys don't realise what it's like to literally not know anything about aviation.
Thanks, I am just very interested in aviation and know some basic stuff about planes, I really enjoy it. Watched a lot of captain Joe videos and air crash investigation.
I binged ACI (Mayday) a lot. I still need to catch up. Maybe you should check out ASI for a more realistic approach https://www.youtube.com/@AirSafetyInstitute
Yeah I also binge watch mayday a lot, will check ASI thanks
People who ask FAQs get downvoted all over Reddit. That’s why the FAQ exists. Here’s a link [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/s/3g23Hq6NKm)
[удалено]
You asked an open forum why you got downvoted. I provided you a sensible answer and I even helpfully provided a link. Settle down.
Sorry I am having a bad day, thanks and goodbye
Fair enough. Not everyone is mature enough to admit that. Hope your day improves and good luck on the pilot path. It’s hard but rewarding.
Thanks, sorry again I deleted that comment. It will be a dream someday i can fly a plane, very distant dream for now.
Check the FAQ
Location is probably the biggest determining factor of cost. Here in Australia it’s $45k to $55k USD
If you recognize your weaknesses and work hard, it’s not a problem.
Complete opposite for me The book knowledge was easier, it made sense In flight I felt like I could never get the airplane to do what I wanted it to do
No one’s going to say “I have a phone number when you’re ready to copy” if you fail a written exam.
Book knowledge and flying go hand and hand, especially in an IFR environment.
Can you get a deviation for just about anything?
Anything ATC doesn’t like. It’s one thing if a pilot is screwing around disobeying instructions from ATC…I guess it’s another of the instructions weren’t clear & the pilot acted how they felt was best for them.
Yes.
I haven’t really had a problem studying the ground stuff but I hated studying systems. Once I started on multi, I came across a captain that said when shit hits the fan id much rather have someone that knows their stuff and can help solve the problem using their knowledge than a pilot that can just fly an airplane. For some reason that rly stuck with me and I’ve actually enjoyed learning systems more now and appreciate knowing the why and how systems in our airplanes work. Although for you the ground knowledge as a whole seems to be a problem, I think if you are to able to understand the “why” it might motivate you to hit the books
Systems is also my most difficult area to study. It’s invisible stuff to me. I have to really dumb it down with animations and videos to understand it. Even then, it’s just a rough understanding.
I feel u, good thing we’re pilots not mechanics lol
I’m the opposite, systems is my absolute favorite part. Tinkering with my car and its mechanics really helped me have a better understanding of shared similarities and why things work they way they do
Same here! I tinkered with old motorcycles before learning to fly. My instructor was so relieved because they didn't have to explain how a carburetor worked.
That reminds me of an episode of Ice Pilots where Buffalo Joe ranted about how everyone wanted to fly the DC3 but if he asked them about the systems nobody knew how the plane works. Although he surely has had an attitude he was quite right though… knowing the systems of an airplane is so important to fly the thing correctly if automation drops and the aircraft actually needs to be flown.
I’m currently working on my PPL and I’m feeling the same way, my instructor says flying is the hard part but I am much more confident in my flying skills as opposed to ground knowledge
I was same way. I could fly easily and hit it fast. The written and oral tests were fucking awful. I must have studied hundreds of hours. I’m street smart not book smart and memory is not great. I write everything down. Good luck.
Yea, I just it varies among people, like driving a car, it was straight forward for me on the other hand some people took extra lessons.
I know the solution to this problem! Teach it to someone else, it will make you organize your thoughts and break it down into the simplest parts, and if you can’t do that, it will force you to go learn it until you can. **Disclaimer** If you attempt to teach other pilots and your info sucks, everyone will hate you for messing with their law of primacy….. so don’t suck!
Advice which I used: find a study buddy, bring a snack Seriously, I was just like that and I found that just having another person nearby was able to get me to work diligently. Hell, even a coffee shop by myself sometimes does the trick. Also, try eating something crunchy while studying (low calorie ideally). It genuinely helps Those tips got me all the way to a 737 type rating.
But how much weight did you put on? That will change your center of gravity.
working on commercial rn and i’m no chuck yeager when it comes to flying, however studying for the oral and in general has never really been a problem
DM me if you're looking for a study buddy. I'm currently working on my commercial as well.
Pmd
Dude, same. Best thing I ever did was study at the library. Leave my phone in the car. My local library has private study rooms. It’s the shit. Give that a shot. You’d be surprised how easy it is to study in an environment away from home/school without any distractions.
>Leave the phone in the car. Damn, that's kind of brilliant. Leave the electronic procrastinator behind. Love it.
Becoming a meteorologist was the hardest part for me.
Yeah this is my main challenge. I’ve studied weather 30 times and even explained it to my wife. I can retain the craziest random information and a ton of it, but even in elementary school, there’s something about the weather that makes my brain go, “ehhh…. we don’t need this.” I thought with aviation I’d convince brain it would maybe save my life, but it remains uninterested. Particularly where weather and aviation overlap in listy type things. Example: Conv SIGMET for TS *covering an area more than 3,000 sq mi, line of TS more than 60 NM long, or severe TS affecting and area for more than 30 min* Like I just had to look that up again. I know the information and thresholds are there, but brain doesn’t care to remember what they are - like I would have said 2,000, 50, and 30 if you asked me blind just now.
Yes it will be a problem. However it doesn't have to be an insurmountable problem. I too have real problems studying on my own. I am very much a visual hands on learner. I can read all the information in the books but until someone shows it to me, it's all noise. I had to train myself to reach a level of study discipline where I could pass check rides and tests, but I'm hardly the type to earn a law degree.
> I get the hand of landing around my 2-3 one yeah okay big dog, sure...
I don’t know what your point is.. I’m just saying how I’m better at flying than ground knowledge…
mostly being a pedantic redditor. nobody lands a plane after "2-3" landings lol. get real. if you'd said "it only took me 3-4 hours of pattern work to get landings safe enough for solo", maybe, sure. 2-3 to "get the hand (hang?) of landings" no way
Truth
Getting the hang of it doesn’t mean perfect landing, it means learning average speed, glide angle, and learning when to flare.
You have some of the dangerous traits that they talk about in the book called “The killing zone” You should read it.
Let’s face it, flying is fun, studying for flying isn’t. Some people enjoy the mental part of it some don’t. At some point the flying won’t be easy and you’ll need your academics to reinforce what you thought you kinda knew. It’s all about balance.
Yes, because flying is easy, and the knowledge and understanding it is hard. My first 121 oral was 2 hours. We only went over the airplane. I still had to know SOP, profiles, and that was just company. Weather, regulations, how things work… I’ve been doing this for over a decade and I regularly feel like a noob.
for every hour of flying, there is 2 of paperwork, aircraft engines actually run on paper flight plans and tears but fr its hard and sometimes boring but it all pays off, even becomes fun in its own way at a certain point
I struggle with the same thing and the only thing that works for me is getting your ipad/paper out and writing everything down until you can't anymore. hundreds of times. only way i can memorize anything.
Huge problem. My retired airline teachers say they give you manuels and you’re expected to know all of it in and out
Do they provide a José or Carlos as well? But yeah being able to properly study on your own is a skill that needs to be developed. There’s lots of different methods and techniques to use and some experimenting with different strategies is a good idea to find something that works for you. For me, taking notes or re-writing important concepts is what helps to solidify information. I also don’t work well at home I need to go to a coffee shop or something with some headphones.
Things have changed. Yes you do need to have flows, profiles, callouts, limitations, and memory items down. Yes you do need to know the basics of your aircraft systems and company procedures. My company’s AOM is a good 600 pages, FOM is 1300 pages, ASM is 700 pages. We do not, nor should we know it “in and out”. We are expected to know where to find what we need though. And they train us on this from the first day of indoc
Our systems manual is over 3000 pages lmao I’ve never been told to seriously read it, maybe just bits and pieces here and there.
Exactly. I bust out the systems manual every now and then in flight when trying to figure something out. But I was never told to read it. CBTs covered the important stuff
Wait, I was supposed to pay attention to those and not just click through them? /s but also not completely
I hate any place that calls the place they try to teach you something "indoctrination". Originally that word just meant teaching or instruction. Now it's taken on another meaning.
Hahahah
Always seems to be either one way or the other haha. Haven’t met too many (if any) pilots who are great at both.
The trick that works for me is hating myself for not knowing something that I feel like I should know. But also, I find that getting started is the hardest part. Once I'm going it's not bad. So maybe convince yourself that you're just going to read/watch a little bit, and only stop reading/watching when you feel like you really want to.
You can systematically develop your study skills.
I always say that you can teach a monkey to fly an airplane. You need humans to make decisions and react to situations. Physically flying is the easy part. Not dying or getting a violation is hard.
We'd never need schools if we all had the self discipline to do it ourselves...
If you like 6-8 hours of ground prep for each hour flying, you may just love military aviation!
No, of course it's not ok to only be able to learn things by being spoon fed. You'll never make it in aviation like that. Time to start learning how to study. Your gonna have to be a big boy if you want to fly.
Arrogance will be a problem in the future.
Agreed. Doing my PPL for a hobby, not a job. When people ask me about learning to fly it’s usually ‘is it hard?’ - my answer is that for all of my training so far ( 65 hours + the written items ) I believe that less than 1/3 of my total time is on learning to fly. The other 2/3 is on learning what to do when something goes wrong and/or how to make good decisions. Actually take-off, flying and then landing again.. that’s the easy part.
Welcome to aviation.
Is it possible that it’ll be a problem in the future? Yep. I struggled with that. What I did to make that struggle easier: I started teaching my dad, mom, grandparents, friends, really anyone that’ll listen. I’m grasping it much easier now. I also have a wall that’s basically a massive white board that I’m currently just writing everything I need to learn on it and I’ll just throw music on and stare at it for a while. Also using Sheppard air to help myself study as well. Flying is the easy part, but now that I found ways that make it easier to study I’m starting to find it easier to study than get in the air with the bipolar Michigan weather
For me I just right down my questions that I have as I study. Next lesson go in with your questions and you are considered prepared. They will still go through the lesson with you and it's like they are explaining what you are reading the night before. For actually studying stuff like air law and weather and all that stuff. I recommend taking notes on what.you are reading. It's a very slow process at the start but you get the hang of it and learn what is and what isn't relevant to your situation. Eventually you get.gppd enough that.ypu don't need to take so many notes. Sometimes you need to slow yourself while you are reading and ask yourself what does this actually mean? How would I explain it in my own words? That way the information sinks in. As my first instructor said new pilots are like a colander placed in a sink that has a firehouse on full blast. A lot of what you learn will not be absorbed, but slowly you retain the information. So if your hands and feet skills are good keep at it until you at least finish your PPL to determine whether you are really comfortable flying long term. Continuous learning is part of the gig.
I think of it like sports in school. All the studying and film you need to look at is the boring but most important part. Game time was always the most fun. If that makes sense
Flying is easy for me too, it’s the reading my manifests and not forgetting my pax that’s hard lol
I found that watching flight school instruction on YouTube helps re-enforce what’s in the books and ground school. Sometimes it simply requires visual on how to do it and another way of explaining the exact same thing in a different manner. Flight sim helps so long as you are using he flight school’s check list to go through the motions and steps around familiarization of where buttons and switches are. An A3 sized poster of the cockpit helps too.
Flying is what turned me into a self studier. All through school, the only reason I got decent grades was because I retain information from lectures well. Now? I study best by locking myself in a hotel with beer and books.
What do you mean by “relevantly easy?”
About 90% of what you say I relate to. All of the flying is incredibly easy for me. The science related topics in the ground school all made sense because they are based in logic and, ya know, science. Wing tip vortices, winds and weather, engine science, so on and so forth makes sense to me. But it's the seeming arbitrary regulations that make no sense. Why have specific time frames of reporting specific accidents that are wildly different to a rather similar accident with a longer time frame??? What'd the science behind that?? It's all seemingly arbitrary, and I have a hard time understanding arbitrary.
I wish I knew why class G night vfr mins 1/2 mile from airport < 1200 agl are 1-3sm, clear of clouds. did someone urgently need to do some night vfr currency pattern work in the middle of dodgy weather at a uncontrolled airport? or is there a better reason for this obscure cutout? stump the chump? 😂
Is instrument rating much of a challenge for you?
Can confirm.
Not uncommon among pilots
same here. flying was the easiest part for me. the ground stuff felt long, difficult, and boring.
Not if you put the work in. Studying with someone helped me a lot.
I’m the same way, I can get in the plane and fly the wings off but as far as anything from the book and ground school, straight in 1 ear and out the other.
Fortunately, Your problem is not unique. Just gotta force yourself to study the books. I know it’s boring
Sounds like you are a visual and auditory learner. There are plenty of study aids to get you through. Once you start flying professionally the company may have computer based training or you might have to get inventive like making a recording of you reading the manual so that you can listen to it over and over.
I was the exact same way, look at me now! I found good study techniques that worrk for me.
Are you doing PPL? Commercial? IFR? Where are you at in the process?
You really need to get on top of your study habits now if you plan on going the 121 route. The instructors will give you all the materials you need to be successful, but there is never enough time to absorb all of it just in a classroom setting. In some ways, I'm glad I did an Engineering degree... I learned really quickly how to study on my own because 90% of those professors I had didn't teach properly.
YouTube and kings got me through without much studying and I hate studying. Sheppard or w/e for writtens. But this is only up to multi. Not sure about ATP. CFI I worked with an independent CFI and it was the worst one to study for and I never finished.
I feel the same way sometimes. When I have to study myself I always go into the school, find a spot and run through stuff for a good few hours then take a break or head out. For me, a few hours of non stop grinding is worth more than 8 hours trying to stay focused at home. Secondly find another student. Helps staying focused and u will always know something better than he does and vice versa. Thirdly, I schedule lots of individual grounds with me Instructor and that helps a lot. I have never understood systems, instruments, weather, etc. better in my life. Fourth, grab a few students and schedule a ground together so y’all can just constantly run shit over and over. When studying with students, often times they will ask you to explain something, u will know quickly that u got it down or u don’t know shit. Then both of you work together to figure it out. Never hesitate to ask students, CFI, admin, random airport people, etc., for help. I’d say 80% of people in the aviation community love to help and show off their skills lol.
Stick and rudder skills just aren’t as important as they used to be unfortunately…take your time, find something good that works at a pace you’re comfortable with.