Do you have what it takes to be a pilot?

I hear students many times say, “Do I have what it takes to be a pilot?” or “Am I good enough to learn how to fly”? These questions usually come when a student realizes how much hard work is really involved in getting a pilot license. They start getting overwhelmed after the first couple of lessons and start wondering whether they even have the capability of being able to do it.

When a student gets to this point, many times they quit flying without giving it enough of a chance. There is so much new information coming all at the same time that they can’t imagine the possibility of ever being able to grasp it all. They get frustrated and begin to question things. Some students are very hard on themselves which adds to the stress.

Some students look to put the blame elsewhere because they don’t want to fail at something. These are usually pretty smart people that have always been successful at things and the thought of failing at this is too much for them. They will find something or someone to blame. In many cases they either quit flying or switch flight instructors just to find out that their problem didn’t go away.

Here’s the good news for student pilots

It is normal to feel this way and if the students would just realize that it is a natrural part of learning to fly, then they can move on and give it their best shot. Everything falls into place eventually. The flight instructors know it because they’ve been through it themselves and have seen it a million times. You have to accept that you don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle and you are forming opinions based off missing information.

I’ve watched stressed out students go from almost quitting to becoming awesome pilots. I’ve had students leave me for another instructor, thinking things would be better, just to quit flying a few lessons later when they realize it wasn’t the instructor causing their issue. There are too many new things happening at the same time and it takes dozens of lessons for a student to start feeling comfortable with them. You can’t break down a lesson small enough to try to master only one piece at a time because there are several things that happen at once whether you want them to or not.

Here is my advice to new student pilots

My advice to any new students out there is to stop worrying so much because, confusion, the feeling of things happening too fast, fear, anxiety, not feeling smart enough, etc. all pass with time. It is natural. There is no perfect solution to stop it. There is no perfect book that explains every little detail just the right way. Trust that your instructor knows what he is doing, do the best you can and study as much as possible and it will all become second nature in the end. The instructors job is to fill in the blanks for you and you have to trust that he will. Follow his advice and keep communicating and it will happen. You must trust that.

Remember, the experienced instructors and pilots that you see that seem to do this so easily all started exactly where you are and were going through the same thing. Can anyone learn to fly? Probably not everyone is cut out to handle all the work that is involved, but most can push their way through with a little trust and a lot of studying!

I hope this makes you feel a little better!

Joe Standley