Flight Training - March/April 2021 - 36

The steady progress you've been making seems
to be stuck. You pound away, lesson after lesson.
You don't improve. You do grow frustrated. This
type of leveled-out learning seems to strike many
student pilots at the landing phase, but it can also
happen at any other stage or during preparation
for the checkride.
The phenomenon is so common that it has a
name: a learning plateau. Pilots of every skill level
run into plateaus.
Now that you know what a plateau is, how do
you overcome it? First, make sure you talk to your
flight instructor about what you think is happening.
Then, put a plan into action. Here are five things
to try, plus a few out-of-the-box ideas in case the
obstacle to your progress is a little more obscure.
Your flight instructor is sure to have some suggestions, too.

1. Try something different .

Put aside the maneuver that's got you stuck-
landing, slow flight, steep turns, whatever-and
work on something else. Something that requires
a completely different skill set-such as a short
cross-country flight or a night flight-can freshen
your enthusiasm for flying. Plus, you'll check off
another requirement to obtain your certificate.

2. Take a fresh view.

It's your tenth time around the pattern and you can't
figure out the timing of the landing flare. Or the correct sight picture. Or you can't keep your approach
stabilized. Before you grow too frustrated, take a
deep breath. Ask your flight instructor to perform a
landing from the right seat while you watch everything he does. Or, ask your flight instructor if there's
a different method she can use to teach you the
landing. Or, ask her to put you with another flight
instructor just for one lesson. Sometimes a different
perspective is all it takes to diagnose a problem and
prescribe a solution.

3. Take a break.

If you absolutely are dreading your next flight
lesson because you fear more of the same-no
progress, more frustration-then it's OK to postpone your lesson for a few days. Take this time to
reflect on all the progress you've made. Had you
even been in a small airplane a year ago? Could
you have imagined yourself taxiing an airplane,
let alone landing one? Just don't let this very brief
break turn into a longer hiatus.

36 FLIGHT TRAINING MARCH/APRIL 2021

HUMAN FACTORS

THINKING BEYOND THE ROUTINE
Sometimes it's not just you

Plateaus are common, and many can be remedied with
the general solutions offered here. For some students,
however, some brainstorming and some trial-and-error
may be necessary before a problem is resolved.
For example, height-challenged students often
have trouble with sight picture and flare when learning
to land. Always make sure the seat is adjusted high
enough for you to be able to look over the instrument
panel and just to the side of the runway. If the seat is as
high as it will go, and you're still making sight errors, a
seat cushion may be required.
Don't underestimate depth perception. Polarized
sunglasses can be an unwitting block, and the pilot
may not even realize it. Polarization messes with depth
perception. If polarized sunglasses have been a staple
in your flight bag, start landing without them and see if
you notice an improvement.
Is stall recovery giving you the shakes? Go up in
an airplane certified for spins and spin recovery, with
a flight instructor who specializes in upset recovery.
You'll safely explore the edges of the flight envelope
that are causing you discomfort, and you'll learn the
control inputs needed to avoid putting an airplane into
a spin--or to recover from a spin if one occurs. -JWT

Flight Training - March/April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - March/April 2021