I felt like talking about my first day would help calm my nerves and help other people who may end up in my situation.
Today was my first day at KBJC out here in Colorado and I’m happy to say that I love the school. The instructors were happy to answer any questions, the students all helped me find my way around, and the entire atmosphere was conducive to just being a better pilot and person.
Here is where my problems started: I’m cocky to a fault. I’ve always been the best on the field, the smartest in class, and the best in my past career. I turned the store I managed from being one of the worst in the nation to the third most profitable out of 1,700 stores. I was GOOD at everything I did and I kept that mindset going into my first day here at ATP. I expected my first day to be a breeze and I would be a professional pilot right away. It turns out, flying a plane isn’t something you can just be good at. Motion sickness isn’t something you can just get over. Some people don’t have the sickness right away and I truly envy them, but that’s not going to be something that stops me from accomplishing my goals.
Today really did humble me more than anything in my life, and it’s hard. It’s hard not being the best. It should be obvious that I wasn’t going to be the great at something I’ve quite literally never done before and honestly I’m ok with that. I mean, emotionally I’m not ok with that due to the cockiness, but logically I know I have to keep working on this and I’ll get better. I wasn’t able to keep a heading, couldn’t keep level flight, couldn’t complete coordinated turns, and couldn’t keep a constant airspeed. All of maneuvers needed to fly correctly, I couldn’t do. Then, I got hit with motion sickness so hard that I couldn’t safely control the plane. And that’s ok! I have to keep telling myself that I’m comparing my skills and abilities to instructors who are TRAINED to do this. They have experience that I can’t touch right now and they’re prepared for people to have the setbacks that I had today. I have to keep pushing myself to overcome my weaknesses and turn them into strengths and I know that will help me prevail and achieve my goals.
I really wanted to make this post to highlight issues that I know some prospective students (and current) might begin the program with. The cockiness, the overconfidence, the feeling of needing to be the best rather than wanting to put in the work to be the best. This post is to hold myself accountable to understand that I need to work harder than I’ve ever had to in life if I want to excel at this new challenge. I know I’ll be able to do it, I just need to keep reminding myself that it will take time.
I believe in myself and I owe a lot of that to the mentors here. Reading your experiences and advice has definitely motivated me to finish this.
I look forward to being back here with some great news soon!
It sounds like you learned a VERY important life lesson today (and not one that only applies to aviation). I’ll spare you my Psych 101 evaluation of your post as this isn’t the proper venue. What is important is what you do now moving forward and what you do with your new found humility. As you progress things will start to click and you may find your inner arrogance returning to its former glory. If it does I promise you it will be short lived. The program gets harder, not easier and you will have good and bad days. This is not a competition to be the best. It’s an education. Further we have several name at the airlines for people who “think” they’re the best. They usually don’t do well. Being a good airline pilot means you’re part of a team and if you’re not you may find yourself stuck as it’s a very small industry. But that’s down the road.
If you’re there to learn and are willing to do the work you’ll do fine. If you waste your energy trying to prove something to someone you will not.
I appreciate your blunt honesty. Whether it’s spoken or not, most people want to believe they know what they are doing and they are good at it. However, flying is unlike anything you’ve done before. You have no prior experience and you’re trying to not only learn stick and rudder skills through hand eye coordination but also general aviation knowledge while trying to keep your body from bringing your lunch back up.
Give yourself a break. Keep this humble attitude and work hard. You’ll find your confidence will ebb and flow. You’ll feel like you’re maverick after your private checkride. Then you’ll get to the instrument phase and realize how horrible you are at scanning the instruments that you can’t keep the plane in level flight anymore. You’ll work harder, learn more and get the confidence back… just in time to get to the commercial phase and be humbled again by your lack of precision during steep turns or a power off 180. You see my point… even at the airlines you’ll continue this process. Feeling like you’re Maverick and then one day you have an absolute slammer of a landing and you’ll feel like you don’t even deserve your wings anymore.
Don’t worry, you’re in for a lot more humbling experiences.
Truth be told, the lesson that you learned on your first day will hold true for the rest of your career. We all have good days and bad days. We are all striving to be our best, but flying is not only dynamic but also a diminishing skill. At best, we have good moments, but anything can humble ourselves in an instant.
First off, I want to thank you three for the advice and encouragement you’ve given here. I know it gets said a lot, but it’s extremely helpful and I can’t thank you all enough for helping every one of us with this journey. I definitely learned the hard way that learning to fly is a marathon and not a sprint, but it’s coming together finally.
To update my journey, I passed the PAR with a great score, nailed landings within the first couple flights, and just had my solo today! I feel like I’m finally understanding the bare minimums of what it takes to become a pilot.
I start night flights and XC flights this week, check ride is scheduled for about two weeks from today. To say it’s going quick is an understatement. But, if everything works perfectly, I should earn my PPL by the end of the month!
I jumped into this program with way too much confidence and got knocked back real quick. I’ve had to temper my expectations of myself and understand that it will take time and consistency to achieve the goals I’ve set for myself. Hopefully I study and practice well enough to pass my check ride easily, but I know it will take work. I’ll keep this thread updated on my progress just in case other people decide they want to see how the program goes for people with a personality like mine.
Sorry I’m late to the party here from your original post, I’m glad you have rebounded from the feeling you had. Passing the PAR is a good relief of stress, I felt like I saw a difference of students who were studying versus those who completed it through stress of worrying to pass it. Congratulations on the solo and moving ahead, there’s always that one wall that we have to overcome, and you did it, kudos. Keep up the good work and continue to work hard, good things come to those who are patience and have a good head on their shoulders.
Thanks @Brady ! Studying for the tests vs working over them has definitely been a game changer. As for the solo picture… that one may have to be taken after I do my do my second flight tomorrow morning. I got a little caught up with ground immediately after and pushing hard to stay ahead with everything.
Brady and @Chris , I’ll definitely keep pushing for this. It’s been nothing but fun and excitement every day I’m in the plane so it makes it extremely easy to work hard on the “not fun” parts of it. I look forward to being able to give more good news real soon!
Update time: I’m officially a pilot! I passed my checkride today and it was actually one of the easier parts so far. When I was younger, a teammate of mine always told me “practice harder than you play.” It made it so that the games or tests or checkrides were the easy part of the journey. It was the time to have fun again. I’m happy to say that he was right!
Big thanks to this forum though. I’ve learned a lot here and I know that’ll just keep moving forward. Ive already started instrument training so hopefully I’ll be back soon with more good news!
Thanks Adam! I had my first instrument sim immediately after I passed and it was like kicked right back down to the bottom . I’m definitely going to need to work even harder to make this one “easy” again. I know I’m up to the challenge though. It’s way too fun to get complacent now!
@Brady@Hannah thank you both! Instrument is already proving to be a challenge, but I’m also only two days in so I can’t expect myself to fully grasp it yet. It’s doing a great job humbling my quick math skills, but that can only make me a better pilot in the end. I’ll make sure to check back in when I finally “get” all of this. I really appreciate all the encouragement everyone here!
Congrats Dominic! The private checkride is your foundation. Remember to retain everything that you’ve learned up to this point. It only gets harder from here.
You know, I probably should have updated this a long time ago. On April 11, 2023, I finally completed the program! It took me 9 months to the day at KBJC, but that was partly my fault. I wasn’t a perfect 7/7 on my rides, but went 5/7 and I’m happy with that.
I’m terrible at getting pictures of each stage, but I did get a picture after cfi initial! That was probably the most rewarding checkride just due to the sheer amount of knowledge in a short amount of time that I had to become proficient with. I was sent to KGKY for the cfi phase and I have nothing but great things to say about the instructors there. It did take me a little longer than originally planned due to me taking this checkride with the FAA aviation safety inspector (ASI) instead of a DPE. When he and I finally got our schedules lined up to complete the ride, Texas was hit with an ice storm that shut down a huge part of the state for about 4 days the planes were frozen to the ground, no cars could drive anywhere, but it have is all a lot of time to study and try to learn all the information perfectly.
One piece of advice for others that hear all the rumors of that stage- RELAX! The ground instructors go out of their way to make sure you’re well prepared before you even start the cfi flights, and the instructors at cfi are some of the best pilots and teachers that truly want you to succeed! Study with your peers and take it seriously and you should have no problems passing.
I guess I was part of the first group to take the CFI-I checkride in the Seminole, and it was definitely more challenging that I thought it would be. But, it’s a great experience to kind of bring that mindset back that a new student will have. You get to learn a lot at once and also teach it at the same time which helps to put yourself into that “new pilot” feeling again. Personally, I think it was a great time to get those few extra multi hours though a lot of people don’t agree with me on that.
All in all, the program was exactly as advertised. I finished with 249.5 hours, I earned 7 different certifications and ratings, and I’m currently headed to Jacksonville to do indoc so that I can instruct at KAPA. ATP’s fast track program is perfect for people who are self-motivated and can fully commit to the time and energy it takes. My program took an extra 2 months due to my mistakes along with weather, but I still can’t be mad at exactly 9 months to learn and retain so much knowledge.
If anyone is still on fence about program, I completed all of my training (other than CFI initial) in Denver, Colorado. People always debate on which location we’ll give them the best weather and I can honestly say that the most training delays I had were due to the weather outside of Colorado. Pick the location most convenient to you and you will do great!
)!
the planes were frozen to the ground, no cars could drive anywhere, but it have is all a lot of time to study and try to learn all the information perfectly.
