Learning Plateus and How to Overcome them
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:14 am
Have any of you got stuck in a learning plateau? How did you overcame it?
As of my last flight, I have accumulated 38 hours (engine running time, I estimate some 34 of actual flight time). I'm doing well in everything, ground reference maneuvers, all types of take offs, normal landings, power on/off stalls, everything except for short/soft field landings. It seems like I'm stuck in the mother of all learning plateaus, or so it seems.
I now have some 7 to 8 hours of pattern practice doing mostly short field landings and a few soft fields, but still I don't dominate this. Progress have been very sloooow and is very frustrating. I always do the approach well and stable and on airspeed, I never had problem with approaches. My problem is with the flare, too early, too late, too much or not enough, always resulting on some sort of funny landings. I do get some acceptable or perfect ones like half of the time but not consistently.
I fly only once a week and that is part of the problem, I'm planning on taking a few days off from work and practice for 3 or 4 consecutive days to see if there any improvement. Another problem is fatigue, I fly in a very busy airspace and pattern work is demanding when there are 3 or more students doing touch and goes plus the regular traffic coming in and out. I have solved the fatigue problem by having my instructor fly the pattern and give the plane to me on final. This allow me to do more landings with less fatigue in a single session. But still, progress is slow.
I have done this practice with 3 instructors and I get different reasons from them as to what I'm doing wrong. One says that touch downs are too hard when I make the selected spot, another says that they are not that hard but side loading is the problem and I need to improve directional control (the plane does not want to roll over but you can feel a little of side corrections after touch down). The third says that I'm almost there with the short landing and that I just have to make sure I have it on the spot because I miss it some times. So I'm also having a little problem determining what I need to improve. I'm sure that most of my short/soft landings are not perfect, but I'm confused as to how acceptable they are, after all, no one have been injured and the plane always fly again without needing repairs. Also, In a real short field, the majority of these landings would have allowed the plane to stop before the end of the runway. So this is all about meeting the PTS that I have read, it does mention something about smooth touch down but that could be a little relative.
I'm considering hiring the examiner that is going to give my check-ride and have him evaluate my short/soft field landing.
This have become very frustrating, I used to enjoy my flight lessons a lot but know, it is about me vs. the short field landings.
Any comments?
As of my last flight, I have accumulated 38 hours (engine running time, I estimate some 34 of actual flight time). I'm doing well in everything, ground reference maneuvers, all types of take offs, normal landings, power on/off stalls, everything except for short/soft field landings. It seems like I'm stuck in the mother of all learning plateaus, or so it seems.
I now have some 7 to 8 hours of pattern practice doing mostly short field landings and a few soft fields, but still I don't dominate this. Progress have been very sloooow and is very frustrating. I always do the approach well and stable and on airspeed, I never had problem with approaches. My problem is with the flare, too early, too late, too much or not enough, always resulting on some sort of funny landings. I do get some acceptable or perfect ones like half of the time but not consistently.
I fly only once a week and that is part of the problem, I'm planning on taking a few days off from work and practice for 3 or 4 consecutive days to see if there any improvement. Another problem is fatigue, I fly in a very busy airspace and pattern work is demanding when there are 3 or more students doing touch and goes plus the regular traffic coming in and out. I have solved the fatigue problem by having my instructor fly the pattern and give the plane to me on final. This allow me to do more landings with less fatigue in a single session. But still, progress is slow.
I have done this practice with 3 instructors and I get different reasons from them as to what I'm doing wrong. One says that touch downs are too hard when I make the selected spot, another says that they are not that hard but side loading is the problem and I need to improve directional control (the plane does not want to roll over but you can feel a little of side corrections after touch down). The third says that I'm almost there with the short landing and that I just have to make sure I have it on the spot because I miss it some times. So I'm also having a little problem determining what I need to improve. I'm sure that most of my short/soft landings are not perfect, but I'm confused as to how acceptable they are, after all, no one have been injured and the plane always fly again without needing repairs. Also, In a real short field, the majority of these landings would have allowed the plane to stop before the end of the runway. So this is all about meeting the PTS that I have read, it does mention something about smooth touch down but that could be a little relative.
I'm considering hiring the examiner that is going to give my check-ride and have him evaluate my short/soft field landing.
This have become very frustrating, I used to enjoy my flight lessons a lot but know, it is about me vs. the short field landings.
Any comments?