Real Downer
My last flight was last Thursday, and it was such a downer that I haven't wanted to write about it. Basically what happened is that Kevin told me to fly him to Livermore (LVK) all by myself, with no help from him. I was not prepared for this; I actually hadn't done any work at all with reading charts, so navigation was not something I knew how to do.
Startup, run-up and takeoff all went fine, and then things started to go south. I hadn't paid much attention to altitude limits in certain places (due to the presence of SFO nearby), so I didn't know them, and Kevin wouldn't tell me. OK, I could deal with that, no problem. We got out to Sunol and did slow flight, steep turns and stalls; the steep turns went well but I lost too much altitude in slow flight and in my stall recoveries.
Then things got really frustrating. I called LVK tower to tell them I was inbound. I told them I was over "the reservoir." He asked "which reservoir?" So I spit out the only one that I knew, San Antonio. Turns out I was wrong; it was Del Valle. Kevin corrected me, and I corrected myself to the tower. The tower said something I didn't understand, and Kevin (after waiting a while) translated and said he told me to get out of his airspace until I knew where I was.
The tower called back after a few minutes and asked for my current position. I told him, and he again gave me a set of instructions I could not understand. Kevin let me flail. Most of me wanted to turn the plane around and just go back to PAO; a very tiny piece wanted to point the nose down and just end it all. By this time I was so near the airport and so high that it was a miracle I even made it down at all. Actually it was a miracle I even found the airport.
It's not that I mind not knowing stuff, or even being disciplined by the tower. I'm glad I'm not ATC; they've got a tough job. But what I really didn't like was being set up for failure and hung out to dry. I know I'm close to soloing -- but if Kevin had asked me, "have you gotten yourself some charts and studied the airspace?" I would have said "No." "Do you know the reference points about LVK?" "No." "OK, cancel your next flight and don't call me till you've studied."
That would've worked fine. He didn't have to throw me into a situation like that and humiliate me to make his point. I can see if I was cocky and needed to be taken down a notch -- but that's really not the case; I'm really the opposite -- way too self-critical, not confident enough. I know that I need to learn to shrug off failures and move on; to that end, when I was told to get out of the LVK airspace, I wish I'd just said, "46D" to acknowledge the instruction politely (but I would've needed to understand the instruction).
If the intent was to light a fire under me, it has worked. I went out and bought charts, a kneeboard, a checklist, and a few other things. But honestly, I don't need my instructor playing games with me like that. He's a good instructor; he's taught me a lot in very little time, and after the flight he was very effusive with praise for the things I did right (my landings were good, even the no-flaps variety; my go-around at LVK was great, and most of my stall/steep-turns/slow-flight maneuvers were good), explained to me a few of the things I did wrong (brake too hard on landing, and of course all the LVK crap), and expressed a lot of confidence in my ability to solo. But I was left with no confidence of my own in a few areas, especially navigation (probably a good thing) and tower communications (..but how do I study?). And for that, I'm not sure he's exactly the style I need -- just tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it. No games.
Startup, run-up and takeoff all went fine, and then things started to go south. I hadn't paid much attention to altitude limits in certain places (due to the presence of SFO nearby), so I didn't know them, and Kevin wouldn't tell me. OK, I could deal with that, no problem. We got out to Sunol and did slow flight, steep turns and stalls; the steep turns went well but I lost too much altitude in slow flight and in my stall recoveries.
Then things got really frustrating. I called LVK tower to tell them I was inbound. I told them I was over "the reservoir." He asked "which reservoir?" So I spit out the only one that I knew, San Antonio. Turns out I was wrong; it was Del Valle. Kevin corrected me, and I corrected myself to the tower. The tower said something I didn't understand, and Kevin (after waiting a while) translated and said he told me to get out of his airspace until I knew where I was.
The tower called back after a few minutes and asked for my current position. I told him, and he again gave me a set of instructions I could not understand. Kevin let me flail. Most of me wanted to turn the plane around and just go back to PAO; a very tiny piece wanted to point the nose down and just end it all. By this time I was so near the airport and so high that it was a miracle I even made it down at all. Actually it was a miracle I even found the airport.
It's not that I mind not knowing stuff, or even being disciplined by the tower. I'm glad I'm not ATC; they've got a tough job. But what I really didn't like was being set up for failure and hung out to dry. I know I'm close to soloing -- but if Kevin had asked me, "have you gotten yourself some charts and studied the airspace?" I would have said "No." "Do you know the reference points about LVK?" "No." "OK, cancel your next flight and don't call me till you've studied."
That would've worked fine. He didn't have to throw me into a situation like that and humiliate me to make his point. I can see if I was cocky and needed to be taken down a notch -- but that's really not the case; I'm really the opposite -- way too self-critical, not confident enough. I know that I need to learn to shrug off failures and move on; to that end, when I was told to get out of the LVK airspace, I wish I'd just said, "46D" to acknowledge the instruction politely (but I would've needed to understand the instruction).
If the intent was to light a fire under me, it has worked. I went out and bought charts, a kneeboard, a checklist, and a few other things. But honestly, I don't need my instructor playing games with me like that. He's a good instructor; he's taught me a lot in very little time, and after the flight he was very effusive with praise for the things I did right (my landings were good, even the no-flaps variety; my go-around at LVK was great, and most of my stall/steep-turns/slow-flight maneuvers were good), explained to me a few of the things I did wrong (brake too hard on landing, and of course all the LVK crap), and expressed a lot of confidence in my ability to solo. But I was left with no confidence of my own in a few areas, especially navigation (probably a good thing) and tower communications (..but how do I study?). And for that, I'm not sure he's exactly the style I need -- just tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it. No games.
posted by MKT at 11:42 AM
2 Comments:
Not funny.
(apologies if this is a repeat, but my first post attempt didn't take)
sorry to hear this lesson went like that.
obviously, kevin has a few things yet to learn about teaching. given that, do you think you'd consider giving him your feedback?
he may or may not be receptive, but if he's interested in becoming a better instructor, he should be very interested in your viewpoint. you aren't the only person out there with personality type thana.gen.1. and maybe he's trainable, and will get it.
anyway, you're handling it very well, and i hope future lessons are nowhere near that demoralizing.
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