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3 Answers

Solo – XC Solo

Asked by: 3159 views , , , ,
Flight Instructor, Private Pilot, Student Pilot

Hi Folks,

a ppl student with 60+ hours finished all his requirements  including local solo and knowledge test , find it hard to do his solo XC or to fly away from the traffic pattern, he tried to did it many times but he said he is not sure if he can do it and afraid to do it. Btw the student made a bird strike in his second local solo while landing on the final 1.5 years ago, but he said this is not the main reason stopping him do his XC solo, he said whenever he see Solo on his schdual he faces sleepless night and tense and think a lot about it ending up coming to the flight school excusing he will not fly solo !!! Any CFI faced like such situation ? 

Regards

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3 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on Oct 16, 2016

    You need to put on your psychologist’s cap. You’ll need to question hims about why he fears performing a solo cross country flight. Is he afraid of getting lost? (What avionics equipment is installed in the airplane?) Is he afraid of an emergency that he might not be able to handle? (Concentrate instruction on emergencies.)

    You need to identify the reason for his fear and address is through instruction.

    If he cannot overcome his fear, then he will not be able to complete his goal.

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  2. CJ on Oct 17, 2016

    Hello – I’m not a CFI but a student who completed his long XC solo about 2 weeks ago after battling the same fear that your student has. I 100% can understand the fear. Jason Schappert has done an excellent video recently on high-time students who end up with what seems like a random trepidation of flying solo.

    The feedback on understanding the student’s fear (and having him/her be honest about it without feeling stupid) is accurate. For me, it was:

    1 – Engine failures
    2 – Collisions at pilot controlled airports
    3 – Spin/stall in the pattern

    My instructor then helped me to focus on areas 1 and 3. For 1, we tons of power-offs landings at small fields. For 3 we did spin training. 2 is something I have yet to feel 100% comfortable with.

    Another great trick for me – I asked to go fly with different instructors who had no bias as to my capabilities and have them give me frank feedback. On the day of my long solo XC I had another CFI do the exact route with me – he “signed off”. I grabbed lunch, got back in the cockpit and went on my own. That added validation was really all that was needed.

    At the end of the day, for all my solo work, I ended up staying up all night – that’s just what we overly cautious people do and I don’t know that it’s entirely a bad thing as we only end up being our own harshest critics.

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  3. eversamh on Oct 18, 2016

    I think he have irrational fear . Knowldge wise he is perfect, He can do power-off, and power-on stall perfectly as well. He said he is just “afraied to get panic alone ” .

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