We Help You Pass
Our free online study guide really works. You can study for your FAA private pilot ground school exam right now. For more info about the 4VFR.COM project, click here. You can find a daily update log here.
Live ATC Audio Streams
Tune into live air traffic control frequencies from North America. This feature requires Real player. Start listening to ATC now!
Reference Library
Our glossary lists and databases have grown quickly. I am working to create an on-line reference library to tie together all the loose ends. You can check out what is currently available in the library
FAA Practice Exam - New!
Introducing our newly enhanced practice exam. Now with figures!. Take a test a day for a week, and I guarantee you will do better on your exam. Get Started Now!
Show your support for 4VFR.COM - Link us. Bookmark us. Tell your mother about us. Press CTRL-D to bookmark this site now!. Check out one of our proposed T-Shirt Designs.
Feature Article: It's About Judgement
In flying there are as many ways to gain skill and experience
as there are pilots. Time alone is a very poor criteria. Once
pilot may gain 100 hours of experience while another may gain
twenty hours of experience five times.
It is not enough to have the requisite skill and judgment to perform
a particular maneuver, you must also have confidence in your ability
to perform it as well. Everyone has a particular confidence level
in their abilities to perform certain tasks. Through repetition
you do certain rather complex procedures without conscious thought,
like driving to a nearby shopping center. We have very little
concern in doing this yet; statistically we are more likely to
have an accident close to home than
while on a trip. Thus it is apparent that familiarity and frequency
of exposure reduces anxiety and increases confidence.
I have only one known one person who claimed to have no sense
of fear. He was supervisor of a ward for the criminally insane.
He might, as well been one of the inmates. Our inbred sense of
fear is a survival kit. We do not push our activity envelope beyond
our comfort and confidence level. We prefer to test the edges
of anxiety under guidance and instruction. The ideal is to gain
exposure in relatively small adventures before testing the water
for ourselves. Thus, we have a reasonable personal limitation.
It separates our comfort zone of experience and knowledge from
the anxiety zone. Some flying students know the line between these
regions better than others do. Survival is the name of the game.
Instructors set limits for student solo, often without explaining
just why. Limitations are part of flying. The setting of personal
limits is part of every flight we make for as long as we fly.
The best pilots know their limits and abide by them. Hair-raising
experiences are best left to those who need hair. (In-house joke.)
Experience is just a process of expanding the range of your limits.
We will expand our limits for takeoff conditions, crosswind conditions,
and every other aspect of our flying. As we grow in experience
so will our limits until they become a coherent image of our own
comfort and confidence zone. Still, there will be limits, when
a pilot senses that the limits are approaching he had better reach
into his bag of alternative options. The best of all choices although
a most difficult one is to stay on the ground.
Last Modified April 23, ©2024 TAGE.COM
