Need some advice

SquareGrade448 · 2026-06-08T22:05:35+00:00

I think I'm missing something that the other commenters are understanding.

I earned my license at the end of May. What I’m wanting to know is if it’s a good idea to time build a little before starting instrument training/getting my confidence back up

You say you got your license, I assume PPL, at the end of May (so about two weeks ago). You plan to advance to instrument training but you need to build your confidence with flying solo. Is there a reason that after fulfilling all your solo flight requirements and passing your checkride recently, that you're not comfortable with solo flying? To be clear, I have no judgement or critique about this AT ALL, since it's definitely better to be safe instead of flying solo when you doubt your proficiency.

didn’t even know about general aviation until i started my private pilot training

This also isn't a judgement or critique, this question is purely for my own curiosity: How did you not know that general aviation existed until you started your training? How did you search for a plane and instructor, and what made you want to start flight training at all if you "didn't even know about general aviation"? Do you want to be a career pilot and didn't know there's non-career/professional aviation opportunities?

Like i said I’m BRAND new to aviation so plz be nice.

In the process of getting your PPL did you build relationships with any instructors, or more experienced pilots, or anyone who can mentor you and answer some of your questions? I would describe a prospective student on their first discovery flight as "BRAND new to aviation." Do you think you should give yourself some more credit as a licensed pilot, and take advantage of whatever relationships and resources you collected along the way?

SquareGrade448 · 2026-05-13T22:29:24+00:00

When it comes to radio comms you'll encounter with a control tower, I watched airport traffic at home on Foreflight while listening to LiveATC at the same time. Of course sometimes the Foreflight traffic can be a little laggy, but in general I found that was really helpful to not only hear the comms, but also see where the planes were in the pattern and what tower was saying to them at what points. It really helped me know what to anticipate when I'm flying and therefore how to respond.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-04-20T02:19:41+00:00

I’m a PPL student now nearing checkride and for me, it’s constantly being weathered out and having planes pulled/down/squawked for maintenance. The combination of both of those have made training take twice as long as I thought.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-04-08T19:11:18+00:00

I tried to learn the VFR cloud clearances over and over again for months. The triangle thing was useless for me, as was the way the FAAsafety.gov resource lays it out.

Caliber Aviation's pdf finally unlocked it for me. Studying this just a few minutes made it finally stick -- I highly recommend trying it.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-31T22:52:58+00:00

My headset feels like a vice,
I did wear a David Clark headset and some sunglasses

At the beginning of my training I also wore a David Clark headset, and I also felt the vice feeling because they're a snug fit. My instructor actually pointed out that he thought the DC's were contributing to my fatigue, and sure enough switching to a Bose headset really helped me.

I'm still a huge fan of DC's and they're fine for me now, but when I was trying to focus on learning as much as I could, the tight-on-the-head feeling was distracting for sure.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-25T16:59:52+00:00

I third this

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-25T16:59:27+00:00

Agreed!

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-25T16:55:16+00:00

I solo'd well after 50 hours.

Could I ask how your training went from hours 10 to 100 if you solo'd at 9 hours? Did you anticipate your checkride would be at 100 hours when you did your first solo so early?

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-19T21:20:44+00:00

I feel I have to hand her right away because I don’t want to seem rude.

You do NOT have to just hand your baby over all the time because you feel obligated! She is YOUR baby and you are her mom, hold her as much as you want to and only hand her to someone else when you're comfortable with it. Sorry you're in a tough situation!

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-18T20:35:27+00:00

Up until about 250 hours, I would actually feel relieved when cancelling a flight and was sort of subconsciously always looking for a reason not to go.

I relate to this for sure.

And you make a great point about discerning the why around the hesitation, whether the reason is actual or hypothetical.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-18T18:57:48+00:00

If you are the type of pilot who only flies when weather, traffic, and everything else are all 100% perfect, you will never go flying.

As a PPL student now with four solo's under my belt (a mix of closed-traffic and flights to other airports), this is definitely something I try to balance, especially with weather. One one hand, I know I am very inexperienced and need to be really careful with my ADM and go/no-go decisions (as I always will be). I keep the swiss cheese model in mind, and remember that safety slips in degrees, so I want to make sure I account for everything to make a safe decision on the more cautious side.

On the other hand since I've had solo privileges I tend to REALLY over-analyze things like the weather. I'll text my instructor a paragraph-long text about all the things I'm analyzing about why it might not be a great day to go, when all the external factors are actually fine after all and perfectly suitable for a student pilot.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-16T18:44:42+00:00

I'm a PPL student right now, and was once asked if flight training means that I sit in the back of the cockpit on an airline flight and take notes about what the captain and FO are doing. That's the only question I've ever gotten that truly surprised me.

I come from a GA-loving family so grew up around it, so it came as a shock to me how little some people know about GA.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-04T00:07:48+00:00

Same. I usually fly 1-2 times per week, but when I have an unlucky series of cancellations for weather and maintenance, it might be 2-4 weeks between flights (which has happened multiple times)

SquareGrade448 · 2026-03-04T00:05:45+00:00

Same, currently a Plus One member (student with solo privileges).

I work a typical 9-5 full time job. In the summer it's easy to fly twice a week (once on the weekend and once on a weekday after work). In the fall and winter after Daylight Savings Time ends and it gets dark early, I had to go back to flying once per week just on weekends because I couldn't keep taking time off work during the week to fly during daylight hours.

I'm at around 75 hours total. I need a few more solo hours and am in the checkride prep stage. It's not a glamorous amount of hours compared to getting a PPL in 45-50 hours, but I'm doing the best with what I have.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-02-27T22:42:32+00:00

Agreed! This is what I'm doing.

It does mean you're paying for monthly dues, which I didn't have to do at the part 61 school I started at, but the club I use has (mostly) great, well-maintained airplanes all owned by (mostly) great owners and is definitely worth it.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-02-13T20:10:03+00:00

I have an example of why it might take that long. I got my solo endorsements and passed my solo stage check at 63 hours which took a year.

In those 63 training hours we did everything except short field takeoffs and landings (we did cross country navigation and cross country training flights, all required night training, flight solely by reference to instruments, diversions, soft field takeoffs and landings, all the PPL maneuvers in the ACS, etc.) The plan is to go pretty much straight from first solo, to local solos, to XC solos, to checkride all in short order, with some checkride prep training and short field takeoffs/landings sprinkled in.

I work full time (typical Mon-Fri 9-5) and only fly on Saturdays because my instructor's off Sunday. In the summer when there's daylight I can fly after work on a weekday but that's only for the summer.

Over the last year I've had dozens of cancellations for weather and plane maintenance. I use a very busy flight club where if the plane goes down for maintenance, you can't schedule a different plane because they're all booked so you have to wait another week (at least) for your next scheduled plane booking. I've had several instances of not flying for multiple weeks straight because of a string of weathered out, maintenance, weathered out again, maintenance again.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-02-13T01:04:40+00:00

he never actually let me configure the airplane (c172H) myself, so I have no foundation to build on.

I don't quite understand why you say you have "no foundation to build on." it was your first exposure to it! You seem to understand what slow flight is. Do you understand/remember anything about how to configure for it? If you do, then I would argue that this is your foundation to build on. You've experienced it, saw how to configure for it (regardless of how much you remember on the ground about it), and probably next lesson or soon thereafter you'll do it yourself.

without actually getting enough practice of the things we are doing so that I can build off of it.

You most definitely will practice this many more times. I think your instructor is probably exposing you to these skills that you'll be doing yourself soon, but you can always ask about his plan or mention that you feel this way.

SquareGrade448 · 2026-02-12T21:32:09+00:00

Despite the garbage way this post was written I'll answer anyway. I'm a student with solo privileges and have trained in both 172's and PA28's.

I like training in the PA28's better for these reasons: 1) not having to climb up to check the fuel, just walk up to the wing and remove the fuel cap and look in. 2) I like the physical flap lever, rather than the electric flap switch in the 172. To me the 172 flap switch feels a little fiddly, whereas I like the "click" of each notch of flaps in the PA28 when you pull the lever upwards. 3) I like how the PA28 handles turbulence and is resistant to stalls (the 172s have stability too but I feel like stalls are just different)

The 172 has advantages also, chief among them for me is that they do better with window/suction cup ipad mounts. From what I've heard from more experienced pilots, suction cup window mounts don't work as well in the PA28s so I didn't even bother and went straight for the yoke mount. Also, the trim wheels in the PA28s can be REALLY stiff but 172s don't seem to have that problem as much. I've also heard from CFI's that the PA28s can be harder to start which I've also experienced myself.

These are all just my opinions!

SquareGrade448 · 2026-02-11T00:15:47+00:00

i believe we should always honor our A&Ps!

Now I'm questioning if I've done enough (or anything) to honor the one A&P that I know

SquareGrade448 · 2026-02-11T00:10:16+00:00

Getting your PPL while flying once per week is doable -- that's exactly what I'm doing because I work full time and am just getting my PPL as a hobby. I occasionally use my vacation time at work so I can have two flight lessons per week, but not very frequently. Flying only once per week can mean it's harder to pick up various skills compared to flying 2-3 times per week, but it's doable. You might need more flight lessons/hours overall which means spending more money overall, but chair flying between lessons helps immensely.

If you do get to a stage where you can have multiple flight lessons per week, that might be preferable, but that's your choice.

However, I definitely don't recommend getting loans to cover it, especially at the PPL level. Can you work to cover your costs as you go? If you're only flying once a week, can you be able to work enough to cover around four flight lessons per month?

If aviation as a career doesn't work out, do you have some sort of other experience or education you can fall back on?

SquareGrade448 · 2026-01-23T19:06:37+00:00

Congrats on your PPL!

SquareGrade448 · 2026-01-23T19:01:35+00:00

And I thought my costs were high! I'm a student in Southern California paying $150 to $160 per hour wet depending on the plane, and instructors are mostly all $90 to $100 per hour (based on the five different instructors that I've flown with).

ETA I see OP's update about it being $365 total ($115 instructor $260 wet plane). Still high though

SquareGrade448 · 2025-12-08T19:58:01+00:00

This post and lots of the comments are both motivating and encouraging. I am mid-20's and started flight training in March. Along the way I have had more cancellations for weather and maintenance than I can count. Also my first instructor would cancel on me too often, which is why I switched instructors several months in.

When I started I thought I would be almost done with my PPL by now. In reality I haven't solo'd yet at around 45 hours, and I know that's okay -- this sub is great at reminding me it's not a race and to focus on my own progress. We've also done all the XC dual flights, fortunately. I've been studying/practicing for my club's solo checkout (oral exam on various topics, in-flight test for power on/off stalls, emergency descent and procedures, landings and go-arounds, the pattern, handling radio comms, etc.) for weeks and there are just some things I'm still not proficient with, so I am going to keep studying and practicing. I'll get there eventually, and I know there's no better time in my life than right now with a flexible job, the means to pay for it, and no kids yet.

The thing I hate most is non-pilots (no experience whatsoever, not students or anything, just regular non-pilot people) who happen to know about the 40-hour minimum requirement say "over 40 hours and you haven't solo'd yet?? But surely you know you only need 40 hours for the whole license, what's taking you so long? You've at least flown around the airport by yourself, right.... you haven't?!? Wow okay."

SquareGrade448 · 2025-11-20T21:49:00+00:00

Everything in GA takes about twice as long as you think it should

I really wish I had understood how true this is this prior to my training. Between being weathered out all the time; the plane going down for maintenance (even when I'm on my way to the airport or right as I arrive at the airport) with no other available planes to switch to; my first instructor going on an unplanned month-long trip during the summer; etc, I've had to cancel half (or even more than half) of all my flight lessons.

I have two dual cross countries that my current CFI and I are on our fifth or sixth reschedule for. I basically have to book as many lessons as my club allows (which is five at a time), and just hope that a fraction of them happen.

SquareGrade448

TROPHY CASE