Fear of Landing Solo

17 Answers

1. 
   

   
   

   Ale on Jun 05, 2013

   This is normal…it happens to most of us…my advice is to come on final with noseup (relatively higher pitch attitude)…your speed will drop down as a result so u have to add power to maintain the target speed….land like airliners do 🙂

   -16 Votes 3 Votes  19 Votes

2. 
   

   
   

   Mark Kolber on Jun 05, 2013

   Lindsay, do you have access to another instructor? If your CFI thinks you’re ready and something inside you just can’t believe him, often a second CFI can get you over the bump. He or she may see something the first one missed or can find another way to make you more confident in your abilities.

   That’s not a knock on your instructor. The very best instructors will often arrange for a second CFI to take a second look at a student before solo.

   0 Votes 1 Votes  1 Votes

3. 
   

   
   

   Brian on Jun 05, 2013

   Sorry Ale, I’ve got to thumbs down such advice. That kind of flying is for jets or other large, more importantly, high powered, aircraft. Dragging it in slow while relying on power is a good way to get in trouble: 1) on a very hit day when you get hit with sharp down draft or 2) if your engine sputters or god for bid quits all together.

   Learn to glide and rely on gravity as your engine. Do that and you’ll never fall short. Learning a power approach for our little birds is good for one thing in my opinion, short field landings. Beyond that it’s a crutch. And a dangerous one to boot.

   Lindsay,

   Marks advice is a great start. I’d also consider thinking in your head “shift my eyes” “shift my eyes” as you approach approximately a wings height. That is, lift your eyes up from the ground and stare to the horizon at the end of the runway. As a final thought, do some low level flying over the runway with your CFI. Fly 20 feet off the ground down a long runway at approach speed and do shallow turns drifting from one side to the other. Fly 5 feet off the ground, in flare just above stall speed, and do the same thing. Get comfortable down there, the plane flies just the same there as it does at 3000 feet.

   PS If you can fly it to a coordinated, controlled, stall while holding a fixed point in the distance at altitude you have the skills necessary to land. The only thing left to overcome is fear.

   Good luck!

   +7 Votes 8 Votes  1 Votes

4. 
   

   
   

   lo_fly on Jun 06, 2013

   keep practicing with your instructor, landing will become more and more confortable with time…. no reason to worry

   +1 Votes 1 Votes  0 Votes

5. 
   

   
   

   Ale on Jun 06, 2013

   Come on Brain!

   How do you ask a student pilot to “… Fly 20 feet off the ground ….. and do shallow turns ….”. Fly 5 feet off the ground, in flare just above stall speed, and do the same thing”. Being too close to the ground and doing shallow turn can cause a disaster for a PPL student pilot specially if a strong x-wind encountered. This advice will be acceptable in a simulator or for a student with more experience but for a 30 hrs total pilot time to fly 5 ft and do shallow turn is not a good idea. I do agree with the rest of your post.

   I think the best advice comes from lo_fly.

   I don’t agree with Mark. If Lindsay has been trained with the same instructor for 30 hours, changing the instructor now is not a good idea. The rule of thumb is to start and end the training with the same instructor unless the trainee himself believes that the instructor weakness is the problem.

   -10 Votes 0 Votes  10 Votes

6. 
   

   
   

   Pete Vincent on Jun 06, 2013

   30 hours in 3 years may mean you just haven’t been getting enough practice to be comfortable with it. Landing is the hardest (most involved) part of flying for my students to grasp. And frankly, any student pilot with >50 hours is expected to be rusty after only a month between flights.

   Buckle down and try to fly as much as possible before your solo, you can do it!

   0 Votes 0 Votes  0 Votes

7. 
   

   
   

   Mark Kolber on Jun 06, 2013

   Ale, I wasn’t suggesting changing instructors (read the second paragraph). I was suggesting a second look by another instructor, somewhat akin to a pre-solo stage check. It’s a requirement in Part 141 and a heck of a good idea in Part 61.

   0 Votes 0 Votes  0 Votes

8. 
   

   
   

   Brian on Jun 06, 2013

   Ale, it is not a difficult task by any stretch. It is fundamental basics performed at a low altitude. No student should be preparing for solo if they can’t fly slow flight or at an approach speed while making shallow turns at altitude; this we could agree on that I imagine? Well, that’s all this is, just lower.

   Properly demonstrated, first, by the instructor, and then carefully led through the maneuver it can serve as a great learning tool. Typically I’ll demo the first lap, control the throttle the second lap, and then give them full control the third lap. Repeating this process first for a normal flying speed and then again for flight in the flare.

   Fear of the ground is natural. Demonstrating that what you practiced up there works just the same down here is great way to build confidence and understanding to help overcome this fear.

   +5 Votes 5 Votes  0 Votes

9. 
   

   
   

   Mark Kolber on Jun 07, 2013

   I agree Brian. It’s a basic maneuver to help a student gain some ground awareness and a standard for pilots who have difficulty with crosswind landings. I had a friend who had taken lessons years earlier but quit because he couldn’t handle crosswinds landings. I invited him up for a flight with the purpose to giving this maneuver a try. Even with 10+ years away from any lessons, he did just fine and his reaction was, “Wow, I can do that! I wish my instructor had shown that to me.”

   0 Votes 0 Votes  0 Votes

10. 
    

    
    

    Ale on Jun 11, 2013

    For Kindsay, you might find this website helpful: http://www.rodmachado.com/_become_private_pilot/anxiety_page-2.php

    For Brain & Mark,

    From what Lindsay says, I can tell that she doesn’t have any problem with her technical knowledge or her flying skills. She has an anxiety or fear of a particular flight phase.

    Her general flying skills are fine as her instructor confirmed; “…My instructor says I know everything and fly really well…”

    She has is afraid of crash landing ” I cannot bring myself to fly solo…my fear arises when I am on final approach and I see where the grass meets the pavement.

    This is what the Aviation Instructor handbook says about this kind of problem:

    1. Anxiety is a mental discomfort that arises from the fear of anything, real or imagined. It may have a potent effect on actions and the ability to learn from perceptions.

    2. Fear adversely affects perception by narrowing the perceptual field. Confronted with threat, students tend to limit their attention to the threatening object or condition. The field of vision is reduced, for example, when an individual is frightened and all the perceptual faculties are focused on the thing that has generated fear.

    3. Fear inhibits the ability to learn how to fly.

    4. When students begin flight training, they bring with them their interests, enthusiasms, FEARS, and troubles. The instructor cannot be responsible for these outside diversions, but cannot ignore them because they have a critical effect on the learning process.

    Treatment:

    1. Instruction must be keyed to the utilization of the interests and enthusiasm students bring with them, and to diverting their attention from their worries and troubles to learning the tasks at hand. This is admittedly difficult, but must be accomplished if learning is to proceed at a normal rate.

    2. Anxiety can be countered by reinforcing the students’ enjoyment of flying and by teaching them to cope with their fears.

    3. An effective technique is to treat fears as a normal reaction, rather than ignoring them. Keep in mind that anxiety for student pilots is usually associated with certain types of flight operations and maneuvers. Instructors should introduce these maneuvers with care, so that students know what to expect and what their reactions should be.

    0 Votes 1 Votes  1 Votes

11. 
    

    
    

    Brian on Jun 11, 2013

    Rod has some wonderful stuff, I second reading through that.

    I’m glad you can copy and paste that which you’re studying to become an instructor. Though you’d be better suited to learn to use it in both conventional and unconventional ways rather than harping on those who’ve already studied and are, or have, been applying it for many years.

    Another word of advice, all you know about Lindsay’s technical skills are “my instructor says…” When you start teaching you’ll be amazed at all the things instructors apparently say. Treat every case as though you know nothing about the pilots ability to fly because until you fly with them that is exactly what you know; Nothing.

    —

    Lindsay, I’m using you as an example mean no disrespect. I do hope the above paragraph did not come across that way.

    Ironically I just took a student of mine up this past Sunday who seems to have a problem that parallels yours. The field I operate from has a lake at both ends with about 10 feet of grass between the runway and the lake. The runway is 2000′ with no numbers or markings on it. In other words, the grass before the runway is what the pilot aims to crash into during the final approach gliding phase.

    He’s not done a good round out and flare yet at this field, but that was ok because it wasn’t the focus of our lessons yet. However, Sunday was the day where we tackled this round out, flare, and flight in the flare down the runway. The runway used for this is a short hop from my field, but still a mere 2100 feet and it’s a grass strip. However, it has a 400-500 foot clearing at one end with 75-100 foot trees at the other.

    So we head over and do exactly what I outlined above, except the 5 foot passes we did without turns as there just isn’t time to do turns on a 2100 foot strip. His round out and flare was great, especially by the end. Flight in the flare went well at both 5 and 20 feet. We had to battle quite a bit to get him to look up and fly the horizon for the round out though. He kept forgetting, getting scared, and staring at the aim point till I verbally reminded him to shift his gaze. Finally, by the last 2 or 3 passes he was doing it all on his own: flying a 1000′ flare, rounding out almost perfectly between 5 and 10 feet, holding it off and ending with a go around.

    So problem solved, right? Then we head home. I look over to Steve (fake name for anonymity) and say, “well those last few went great so why don’t you go ahead and show me a nice one here.” I didn’t mention it, but I was going to let him take it to landing if it went well. It didn’t. He stared at the patch of grass before the runway till I was forced to grab it out of his hands, even with me reminding him to shift his gaze. Something about that runway, that patch of grass, and that lake just before it. It was too much for him to overcome this flight and he just locked in on the target and was ready to be Japanese.

    The moral here is two fold. One, you need not think you’re the only one this happens to. This is just one of many. If it’s not landings it’s stalls, if not stalls it’s steep turns. Just about every student has one item in training that has them on edge or down right scares the daylights out of them. Don’t let it get to you, just keep pushing. Try a single flight with another instructor. Try a few low passes, maybe simply knowing you don’t have to land will take away your fear. Try meditation techniques if it comes to it. Point is, try everything, but just don’t stop trying and you’ll get there.

    The second is, perhaps you need a changes of scenery. This dirt strip I took my student to had very little going on visually. It was a brown field leading up to the runway, a line of 3 foot tall shrubbery marking the beginning of the runway, and then the field of grass that made up the runway. Maybe going to a similar environment in our area and simply doing some low passes, each time getting lower and lower, will do the trick. If you can’t land on grass for school policy that’s not a problem. Just don’t land.

    Well good luck with it, hope you didn’t mind the long winded story.

    +1 Votes 2 Votes  1 Votes

12. 
    

    
    

    Ale on Jun 13, 2013

    With all my due respect for you Brain, I still strongly disagree with you.

    I suggest you switch from being a CFI to a lawyer as you can defend your point of view even if it doesn’t make sense…..lol!

    -7 Votes 0 Votes  7 Votes

13. 
    

    
    

    Ale on Jun 13, 2013

    With all my due respect for you Brian, I still strongly disagree with you.

    I suggest you switch from being a CFI to a lawyer as you can defend your point of view even if it doesn’t make sense…..lol!

    -6 Votes 1 Votes  7 Votes

14. 
    

    
    

    Charley on Jun 07, 2014

    Guys, if you can just help me a bit with this , i have just 13 hours and when I tried my first solo check I failed , nerves mainly and a really bad decision , 2 circuits went great , 3rd one – on short final I see a plane on the runway ( at that point there were radio problems) and all of a sudden I hear ATC say vacate vacate to the plane on the ground , I did not see it move , but my check instructor told me keep going it will vacate , all of a sudden I see the plane move but to take off , I was not sure if I could make roll out in time ( at this point I was at 100 feet). Anyhow I wanted to do go around and break off , my instructor told me you’re done , you failed your check. He took over and that’s it . After that whole experience I’ve developed serious confidence problems specifically about landing , any advice guys ? I’m at my wits end here 🙁 I want to be great at this so bad but my nerves are getting the best of me.

    0 Votes 0 Votes  0 Votes

15. 
    

    
    

    Mark Kolber on Jun 08, 2014

    Charley, the very first step is to sit down with the check instructor and your instructor and go over exactly why your decision to go-around resulted in a check failure. Based on your description I can’t really tell. I can think of some possible reasons but I can also think of possible reasons why it should not have been a failure.

    0 Votes 0 Votes  0 Votes

16. 
    

    
    

    Charley on Jun 10, 2014

    Hi Mark thank you for the reply:) My instructor told me that it was simply a bad day for me – and left it at that. The check instructor said that I was not in a good mental state after the whole him taking controls episode.

    On the bright side , I did my solo today and it went wonderfully 🙂 I feel very happy 🙂 The 3 check circuits went really good – and my solo was good too ( well I had a 5 knot tailwind that came out of nowhere – but all in all it was awesome 🙂

    +1 Votes 1 Votes  0 Votes

17. 
    

    
    

    Mark Kolber on Jun 10, 2014

    Excellent!!

    0 Votes 0 Votes  0 Votes