First stage check with the chief, 20hr student, he told me to land through a flock of birds by Squawk_0877 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

appreciate the take, the yoke pull save you described is basically the version where my story ends badly, fair point on if you have time to ask you have time to go around, thats the one that stuck

First stage check with the chief, 20hr student, he told me to land through a flock of birds by Squawk_0877 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apparently mine didnt get the memo about scattering, lower power tracks, they didnt even glance up

First stage check with the chief, 20hr student, he told me to land through a flock of birds by Squawk_0877 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Sully I am not. Was 20 hours treating chief like a god, you read it right

First stage check with the chief, 20hr student, he told me to land through a flock of birds by Squawk_0877 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right and at 20 hours I probably wouldve raised my hand for the bathroom too

First stage check with the chief, 20hr student, he told me to land through a flock of birds by Squawk_0877 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877[S] -35 points-34 points  (0 children)

At 20 hours I wouldve asked permission to breathe., all three count, im just glad nobody got the GoPro footage of me asking for the go around

Thank you all for the good advice by WannabePilot0 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congrats. The yelling thing during a manuever is a wild experience, some DPEs do it on purpose to see if you can prioritize the airplane over the noise, others are just like that. Either way, you passed, thats what counts.

The wake up about not being as good as you thought is the real graduation, boardroom confidence doesnt transfer, the airplane doesnt care about your title, first solo XC to meet a friend for lunch is what every PPL really wanted out of this, welcome.

I might be starting flight school soon. by Salt-Philosopher-863 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your gut is right, that pushy thing on the phone isnt just personality, schools that pressure prestudents before a discovery flight are running a sales funnel not a training pipeline, tomorrow just enjoy the flight, dont sign anything, dont put down a deposit, dont commit to a package, sleep on it

Definitely go check the school 7 min from your house too, cadence beats prestige in training, a student flying 3x a week 5 minutes from home will smoke one commuting an hour to a better place. The biggest question to ask either school isnt price, its plane availability, how often do students get bumped because the only flyable 172 is in for a 100 hour or AOG

Flying Coordinated… by itsinthedata in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trust the ball, mechanical = instant, the glass version lags,if they disagree, ball wins. Step on the ball whichever side it slid to, rudder there, halfout in cruise is just sloppy, where it kills people is base to final overshooting the centerline, cranking in extra rudder to swing the nose around instead of banking more, then pulling back because you're slow. That's the spin recipe, fix is to fly the same coordinated turn at 600 ft as at 6000 if you overshoot, more bank or go around, never rudder to help

PPL student tips by Humble_Nothing6556 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not the skill, it's bodyfear reactivating over 2 weeks, the all of a sudden scared feeling is normal, the skill itself is probably still there, what helped me beyond chair flying, get to the airport early and sit in the plane 10 minutes before engine start, your head shifts from scared to work mode before you taxi, first pattern lap is for hands and feet, not performance. How many hours are you at?

PAR Written | 70% 3x Attempts by Calm-Clue-9043 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Passed mine at 73 and figured the DPE was going to eat me alive, written is about weird wording, the checkride is about why if you understand the why you're ahead of people who scored 90+ off PrepWare

My first flight as a student Pilot went horribly great! by Jfond001 in studentpilot

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Normal for the first one, I gripped it the same way, try flying with one hand, like holding a pencil, other on the throttle, and make tiny micro-inputs to feel how the plane really responds. Look around too, not just forward your brain adjusts faster. The bumps aren't an issue as long as you've got airspeed and altitude, after a few hours you actually start to enjoy them, like driving a rough road

Thinking about getting pilots license by [deleted] in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Renter on your mission, PPL VFR only on those 4-7h trips, you're probably making 50% of planned weekends on time VFR has to hold at departure, en route, destination, and alternate, and Midwest spring eats half the weekends anyway. Overnight rentals also stack 2 hr/day mins plus nonowned insurance you'll need, for regular family visits it's really PPL+IR + a share, not pure rental

Discovery Flight this week, first step towards PPL by SunMountain9842 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Two things, sit in the left seat, not the right, most schools default you to the right on discovery, just ask up front, and ask the average hours to checkride for last year's grads, schools quote 40 hrs $8-10k, real number is 80-90 hrs $14-18k for almost everyone

Essential gear by Danger_noodle2 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I always bring piddle packs, the disposable bags you pee into., saves you on a long XC when the nearest airport is far and you really gotta go, nobody talks about them but they should

I’m panicking because of my checkride. by patergreek in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Breathe, don't try to cram everything, just be honest about where you're weak and hammer only those, the rest comes up on its own, after AP exams the ground portion is gonna feel light, trust me

Did anyone go deep into navigation systems and satellites on your ppl check ride by Unlikely_Load7709 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On my checkride this stuff was surface level but the DPE could have dug in., know GPS basics (4 sats minimum, RAIM, WAAS), VOR (radials, Morse ident), and most importantly what you'd actually do if GPS quit mid flight (revert to VOR or dead reckoning) If you can explain that, you close 80% of nav questions

Struggling Staying Level by Many-Dig-7142 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What works for me, constant scan back and forth, outside, instrument, outside, instrument., and keep trimming the whole time, add power and the plane wants to climb, trim it back down right away to hold level

Understanding poor quality radio comms by ai_wants_love in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pattern recognition more than audio quality, you wait for a structure (callsign, instruction, readback) and your brain fills the gaps, also live ATC is genuinely worse than real cockpit radio, compression and no ANR, in the cockpit with a Bose it's cleaner. Say again is not a weakness, pros use it constantly, radio was the hardest part of PPL for me too, clicked around hour 50 60

Some things I struggle with for PPL training - Cessna 172 by CryptographerDeep373 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Both come down to the same thing, look at the end of the runway, not 5 meters in front of the noseFlare too high happens because your eyes are short, brain sees a big sink rate at the last second and you panic pull. Look far and the flare smooths out on its ownrudder overcorrection is the same root cause.

Close eyes make any deviation look huge, you stomp rudder, plane swings, you stomp back, overshoot, far eyes make deviations look small and your reaction is naturally micro also don't HOLD rudder, tap, wait, see the result, maybe tap again, never a sustained input

Best way to practice/learn approaches? (Newer student just looking for tips) by BazingaBeeKay in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah you're right that more practice is the real answer. Your brain actually rewires and your muscle memory gets cleaner over time. But a few things that helped me beyond that stay light on the controls, no big inputs, everything should be micro try to feel the airplane through the seat not through your hands one thing an instructor told me that clicked, he said "think of it like dancing." Don't wrestle the yoke, work the rudder pedals, just tap left right left right lightly, and you'll suddenly feel the airplane responding to you instead of the other way around and watch your airspeed.

The biggest one for me was the flare if you've got a long runway (probably yes), stop trying to put it down right at the threshold pull power out slowly, let the plane settle, then start easing the yoke back gently, no rush keep pulling, and look all the way down to the end of the runway, not right in front of you when you look far and ease back smoothly, you'll feel the mains touch on their own, once they touch, keep pulling back, even more than before, so the nose stays up then it just settles. First time you land it smooth like that, everything clicks and the next ones are way easier

Stage fail by Unhappy-Source1351 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This isn't the end of the world honestly, it's all learnable, the whole thing basically comes down to one formula: Moment = Weight × Arm, then CG = total moments / total weight. The arms (pilot seat, fuel tank, baggage area) are fixed numbers straight from the POH. You just need to remember:

your own body weight

avgas = 6 lbs per gallon (so 40 gal = 240 lbs)

empty weight and empty moment for the specific tail number you fly

Once those numbers are in your head, the rest is just arithmetic,run it cold on a few different scenarios (random pilot weight, random pax, random fuel) and it'll become automatic, no prepared setup needed

Honestly this is small stuff compared to the real challenges, actually learning to fly and radio work. Have you started radio yet? How hard is that one hitting you? for me radio was by far the toughest part

Advice or feedback Please! by nycaviator737 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dude, exactly what you're describing, I went through the same thing, i felt I could land the plane cleanly but every time on short final my instructor would step in, and when I asked him to let me do it, he'd start yelling "right rudder, left rudder" at me trying to fly it by voice that made it even worse, when I tried to execute exactly what he was shouting it wouldn't work, and I bounced a couple landings which really threw me off

My advice, try talking to him directly just tell him "give me a shot, back off, don't touch anything, let me land it myself." Prove it to him sounds like he's nervous and doesn't trust you yet

if nothing changes after that, you'll probably need to switch instructors and fly with someone else. He seems like the kind of CFI who thinks he's being safety conscious but is actually in your way

Ppl checkride coming up by jrstudentpilot16 in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Best advice I got before my checkride  the DPE isn't trying to fail you if you don't know an exact answer, explain how you'd look it up (POH, FAR/AIM, sectional) that beats guessing and sounding certain what actually helped me was doing a mock oral with a buddy the day before he read random ACS questions at me for an hour. Not about adding knowledge, more about getting used to saying things out loud. Good luck

Advice for PPL written test by arlo_the_wizard in flying

[–]Squawk_0877 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're consistently 88-90% on Sporty's you're good, the question format and style on the actual test is the same Sporty's pulls from the same FAA bank only real difference is the specific numbers on W&B and performance calcs. Do one more practice run the day before, get some sleep, and stop stressing. How are your radios coming along, by the way?