What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

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michoglen63
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What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

Post by michoglen63 »

I'm on track to begin career flight training at the end of this year and I'm eager to dive into the knowledge while I wait to begin. I'll divide the question into two:

What did you find most overwhelming or complicated in your training that you believe you could have learned on your own ahead of time?

What did you spend time learning before flight training that you believe was ultimately useless or of little value during training?

Thanks for your answers and opinions! I know various iterations of this question have been asked before, but I hope this one can be seen as an approach from another angle.
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firstofficer
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Re: What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

Post by firstofficer »

Conquer the online ground-school at pilottraining.ca and you’ll breeze through the theory part of training.
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lownslow
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Re: What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

Post by lownslow »

Some lessons you learn will seem outdated or more in depth than they need to be (most basic navigation comes to mind - “Why bother when I just put it in my GPS?”) but they are often a critical foundation for success in your entire flying career.
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photofly
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Re: What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

Post by photofly »

Pay more attention to the horizon and much much less to the instrument panel. Also, whatever the question, the correct answer is “more right rudder”.

Also study Denker's book "See How It Flies" (https://av8n.com/how) like it was your bible.
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DId you hear the one about the jurisprudence fetishist? He got off on a technicality.
airway
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Re: What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

Post by airway »

What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

How important it was to get an experienced flight instructor (not Class 4) and stay with that person for as much of the training as possible (have 1 back up instructor too).

When you are comparing flight training costs at different schools the most important thing to compare is the cost per hour of the plane and instructor, not their estimate of what your particular Licence or Rating will cost.

How important it was to fly at least twice a week. Any less than that you will waste a lot of money relearning what you learned 2 weeks ago and forgot. Ideally, if you have the time, money, instructor, plane, weather, its best to do it like a full time job. The more flights per week the better anyway.

How important it was to carefully study and understand what the instructor asked you to before each flight/Ground School. Particularly the Flight Training Manual, From the Ground up, the AIM, the CFS, the POH, and the Flight Test Guide. Ask your instructor for extra studying. Write down questions for your instructor. Review these publications when you don't have anything else to do. It wouldn't hurt to know these publications cover to cover eventually.

If you are using a highlighter, here is a tip that works great for me. You don't necessarily need to highlight an important thing if you are pretty sure you will remember it without a review. Only highlight things you think you will forget. Then when you go back to review, you only need to review the highlighted things.
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PilotDAR
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Re: What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

Post by PilotDAR »

To drive.
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Big Pistons Forever
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Re: What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

Post by Big Pistons Forever »

PilotDAR wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:07 amTo drive.
:D . I got a chuckle out of that. I grew up in central Montreal and so getting a divers license was a low priority because of the excellent public transport and the fact that there was almost nowhere to park. I got my drivers license after my pilots license mostly because my parents got tried of driving me to the airport.

For the OP I would suggest really studying the Flight Training Manual. It is dry stuff so pick a chapter a day and really go through with it. Make notes of what you are unsure of so that you can ask your instructor when you start flying.

Also learn the phonetic alphabet. I recommend when you are stopped at a stop light recite the license plate of the car in front of you using the phonetic alphabet.
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youhavecontrol
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Re: What do you wish you had learned before beginning flight training?

Post by youhavecontrol »

I wished I knew how to self-study when I first started, as well as how to manage money.
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"I found that Right Rudder you kept asking for."
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