Am I not flting enough?

[captkirkyota]

Ok, been reading here for a while. Have read in a number of threads different things that have lead me to be under the impression that I may be ( by my own choice in how I'm scheduling myself ) not flying enough and that I should fly more than I ground. I am in my 3rd week and have been flying 3 times a week , totally 9 hrs now since by the time I pre-flight and fuel etc it eats some of my 2 hour block, but this is happening less as I'm getting faster at it. I typically go in for ground for 2 hrs and fly 2 hours Mon. Wed. and Fri. and spend Tues. Thurs. and the weekends studying. What I've gotten the impression is that I should fly maybe a day or 2 more but not necessarily ground train more as it is not necessary. I am currently after 3 weeks gonna do my stage one ground test. Should I try and fly more and not worry about trying to keep my ground and flight time/progress so close to evenly moving along? I am trying to go all the way to CFI 2 in about 9-12 months or so give or take.

Thanks.

BTW my screen name relates to my first name and my other passion for going offroad in my Toyota. Not a star wars thing.

[Bearpilot220]

WOW, thats fast to get a CFII, I have just started helicopter flying, but I have a commercial Fixed wing. All I can say is you need a little time on the ground. Flying is alot of musle memory and things like that which take time, and time between flight is good, when I started i was flying twice a week and 3 times if I could fit it in. I would say leave it were you are in gerneral, and if you get a chance throw another flight in, but dont make it a every week type of thing. Hope the input helped.

[Goldy]

since by the time I pre-flight and fuel etc it eats some of my 2 hour block, but this is happening less as I'm getting faster at it.

 

 

I think flying 2-3 times a week is perfect. You keep most of your muscle memory from the previous flight and you have a day or two to absorb your last flight and more ground school. I wouldnt worry too much about that. Personally, I learned by flying once or twice a MONTH....not the best recipe..

 

However, your comment about preflight struck me as odd. You should pay for the time spent in groundschool...you should also pay for the hobbs time on the helicopter, in no way should you pay for the time spent doing preflights. Only when that master switch is on should the meter be running. I hope that you just meant it eats at the time the ship is available and not that it eats into your pocketbook as well.

 

Besides, I think 1.5 hour flight are plenty, 2-3 hour flight can be tiring, especially when learning and your "deathgrip" on the controls.

 

Good luck in your training. Goldy

[joker]

Goldy / Captkirkyota,

 

Re: Pre-flight

 

Where I taught, we charged flight time and instruction time separately. Generally the preflight time was not charged as tuition (apart from the first 2 or 3 where the instructor supervised).

 

The problem with this, is that if the student takes 20-25 minutes to pre-flight the instructor is sitting there unpaid for his time. That's life though. Not suggesting anyone rushes their preflight! Flight time was charged by the hobbs.

 

I think that is what captkirkyota meant.

 

Re: Lesson Length

 

I don't know what the point in any lesson greater than 2 hrs (as a general rule). Fatigue sets in and the quality of teaching and learning breaks down. 1.3 - 1.5 is an ideal time for lessons.

 

In fact it was very annoying where I worked when people landed right at the end of their 2 hour block. By the time they had shut down the next instructor / student's block was already eaten into.

 

Re: Frequency of lessons.

 

Goldy is right. You don't need to over fly. At the beginning it is important to balance your ground knowledge and your flight knowledge. It is not really sensible to start doing say, autorotations without having some ground knowledge about them. Similarly, it is pretty difficult to grasp the idea of translational lift in the classroom, without seeing it in the air.

 

So for someone starting off captkirkyota, I think you have pretty good balance at the moment. As you gain confidence in the air, and as you come up to speed with the ground portion, you'll find the ground becomes less and the flying becomes more.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Joker

Edited May 31, 2007 by joker

[Hovergirl]

I'm starting out with about 3 times a week and it feels perfect for me. One time I flew two days in a row because of my own scheduling issues and day no. 2 was a lot rougher than no. 1. Partly you need time to consciously and subconsciously process everything, and at this stage probably to rest too. If you feel like you are getting rusty in between lessong, fly at home in your chair for free! That's been the best thing for me in making that expensive helicopter time more worthwhile.

 

Good luck!

[zemogman]

I'm flying 2-3 times per week...I try to schedule upto 4 times...cause usually something happens to one of the planned flights (maintenance, other CFI or student scheduling conflict, weather, etc.)

 

I think that's enough like everyone else has stated...

 

What I don't like is when TOO LONG has passed between lessons. Last week we could not fly the whole weel because of strong winds...the next lesson (10 days later) it was obvious that it was too long.

 

Good Luck...

[heligirl03]

I have 4 slots a week booked, but I rarely get them all due to weather. I think maybe 3 weeks out of 12 I have gone out all four times. At one point my instructor said ideally he would like me to fly every other day, so I had a day in between to mentally process things. But of course that is impossible to schedule with 7 days in a week. As it has happened, I'm around 40hrs (I can hardly believe it, it feels like I was at 10 yesterday) and I feel really good about my skills. That is 99% due to having a fabulous instructor, I have no illusions!! But that is 40hrs over 12 wks. And my avg flight time is 1.3. The way I look at it is to take your time with the PPL. You are learning everything from scratch, it's learning a whole new language AND developing muscle memory at the same time. Don't rush it! All your hours count toward the same thing, you're not wasting time as long as you are studying your butt off all along. As soon as I've got my PPL I plan to bust out my Instr and CPL and CFI with summer weather though!! Fly safe!

[Guest pokey]

this is prolly a stupid question,, but, whats "muscle memory" I used to teach basic aerobatic maneuvers ( in Cessna A150) & used to start out teaching the "mechanical inputs" & hoping the student would get the "feel" for the airplane,,,, is that what you are refferring to?

 

sorry,, just a new 'term' to me

 

 

 

 

edited for speelin' i kant renember

Edited May 31, 2007 by pokey

[heligirl03]

Muscle memory includes things like throttling up to the OUTside instead of the inside (like a bike), pedal movements being automatic (without active thought-you could switch to clockwise rotor and it wouldn't matter), getting small motor function for those small inputs (being able to hover and recover-hover).... all the things you couldn't do the first time you got in the machine that you now do without thinking.... no one starts out being able to synchronize the muscles in four extremities! Or at least I couldn't, it took me about 5hrs to get a feel I think.

[Goldy]

Muscle memory includes things like throttling up to the OUTside instead of the inside (like a bike), pedal movements being automatic (without active thought-you could switch to clockwise rotor and it wouldn't matter), getting small motor function for those small inputs (being able to hover and recover-hover).... all the things you couldn't do the first time you got in the machine that you now do without thinking.... no one starts out being able to synchronize the muscles in four extremities! Or at least I couldn't, it took me about 5hrs to get a feel I think.

 

 

 

She said it best- !!!!!

 

Goldy

[zemogman]

"Muscle memory" --- remembering how good one looks in a mirror long after the mirror is gone.

 

OR what Heligirl said !!!

[klmmarine]

"Muscle memory" --- remembering how good one looks in a mirror long after the mirror is gone.

 

OR what Heligirl said !!!

 

Or remembering how good the muscles used to look in the mirror, long after the muscles are gone

 

I have been flying twice a day (2.5-3 hrs total) as much as four days a week when I can find an aircraft. I actually fly at two different schools now just so I can have a ship available to fly when one is shut down.

 

I think that it is okay to fly as much as you can without being totally task saturated. When you stop learning and start to feel too overwhelmed it is time to shut down because you are just wasting your money at that point. Your CFI is going to be coming on the controls more often and you are just going to become more and more frustrated the longer you try to "force it".

 

As for not flying enough, as long as you don't spend too much time re-learning your last lesson, and are retaining your skills you are probably flying enough.

Edited June 1, 2007 by klmmarine

[captkirkyota]

Okay, thanks everyone. I was just reading in other threads about schools not letting students fly enough and I got the impression that 3 times a week at around 1.3 hours was not enough.

My school only charges for the hobbs meter time, and actual in class for ground. I am in an EXCELLENT school in Idaho called Silverhawk Aviation. Everyone is really great, treats you like they are not in a hurry to get done with you even when they are not on the clock etc etc.

I was just wondering is all, since I feel like all I do is read study and re-read what I did not understand the first 4 times I tried to read it and was thinking how on earth could I possibly keep up if I was supposed to be flying more.

Thanks again for all the replies.

Now, to just not push too far fwd during translational lift and then feeling like I'm gonna dive into the ground! LOL

[Goldy]

Now, to just not push too far fwd during translational lift and then feeling like I'm gonna dive into the ground! LOL

 

 

It's ok to let it dive a bit....get back down lower into full ground effect, and keep picking up that airspeed!

 

Sounds like you have a great school...good luck, Goldy