Is flying difficult?
Posted by Fun_Candidate401@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 21 comments
This may be a silly question but do you think it is? Is it easy if you practise a lot?
Posted by Fun_Candidate401@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 21 comments
This may be a silly question but do you think it is? Is it easy if you practise a lot?
coren77@reddit
Flying is absurdly easy. Taking off isn't so bad. Landing is the easiest.
Landing and being able to walk away in one piece ... that's the hard part!
MultiMillionMiler@reddit
This sub is heavily career airline pilots that are obviously geniuses/naturally gifted at flying to make it to that level, so the bias is going to be toward "easy", but my opinion is it is very hard for the average person. The 3 dimensional hand-eye coordination, multi-tasking, total sensory immersion using all 4 limbs and listening/talking on the radio simultaneously and other variables like wind...etc, make it very challenging no matter how much you practice. It's also how easy it is to fuck up even if you have trained enough that you can fly to standards with everything. Can take 3 seconds of misjudging something to totally screw uo a manuevre or violate some rule. Nearly nothing else I've done in my life for 2 hours is as exhausting as a flight lesson with the fatigue afterward.
coldnebo@reddit
one of the harder things in training was developing the skills for radio work.
when I started I thought the phraseology and speaking on mic was the hard part. but now it actually impresses me how little of it is the phraseology and speaking. instead it’s a whole different way of thinking.
how do you report your position unambiguously and efficiently so that other people can understand where you are? this sounds easy, but is actually pretty hard if you’ve never had experience with position reports, for example it’s very easy to say “the airport is to my left” which the old joke response is: “your left or my left?”
but, if you think like a pilot you hear and understand this differently.
“Hanscom Tower, Cessna 731NE, 10 miles northwest, 3000, inbound to land, full stop”
“731NE, enter right downwind runway 29”
“enter right downwind 29, 731NE”
people with good situational awareness in the pattern not only know where you are, they know where you are going and most importantly they know where to look for you.
dcode9@reddit
Try taking a discovery flight and find out.
VileInventor@reddit
is flying easy? sort of. flying safely and flying aren’t the same thing.
Jwylde2@reddit
Flying isn’t that hard. It’s all the stuff you have to know.
BarnackIIIF@reddit
Flying is like any other skill: it's easy when you know how; the hard part, is the learning how.
bgrant902@reddit
Yes and yes. Especially if you’re referring to checkride maneuvers and whatnot. It’s not like I would forget how to takeoff if I didn’t fly for a month, but my steep turns might be outside of standards.
MultiMillionMiler@reddit
I think what's hard is how easy it is to make a mistake. Even if you get very good at steep turns or stalls doing them within standards, it only takes the slightest slip up or lapse of focus to end up botching them.
bgrant902@reddit
Exactly. Almost did it on my checkride. Steep turns were my bread and butter in training and then all the sudden I was -75 feet and it happened so fast.
Puravida1904@reddit
You said it perfectly
angel_rayo@reddit
Flying? Pretty easy, boring even. Taking off? A bit harder, but most people can get the hang of it pretty quickly. Landing? Harder still, but you can do it with some practice, especially if you don't need to take off again.
Doing all of this safely, in the system, without endangering others?
Hard. Really hard.
JSTootell@reddit
That damn Cessna 150 keeps me on my toes every time I fly it! Always a cross wind at home too.
AKcargopilot@reddit
Stick and rudder skills develop just like learning to drive. It takes practice and some pilots are naturally better at it than others. Operating a jet is far more challenging, especially when you encounter unexpected situations. It’s a balancing act that demands efficient prioritization of tasks while effectively communicating and working along side someone you have never met before. Most professional pilots like to downplay their roll and claim it’s “easy”. But that’s because 99% of our work is predictable and it makes us look good. But when things are going wrong, you find out pretty quick if you’re actually on top of your shit lol.
Ok-Money2811@reddit
Wait till you get to the airlines. Flying is stupid easy when you get to the point, the part of the job that slowly pushes you to the grave faster is most things that you deal when the flight deck door is open. Passenger dealings, maintenance, arguments with dispatch…those are the ones that don’t get any easier.
VanDenBroeck@reddit
At the private pilot level, I’d describe it as fairly easy. At higher levels, I’d definitely say it’s more difficult and even too difficult for many people.
Additional_Name_867@reddit
The first time a maneuver is attempted (especially landing) you are going to suuuucccck. The next few times will be dumpster fires and then it’ll suddenly click and you’ll stop dipping the nose on a climbing turn, or finally get a handle on doing everything while staying on speed, or pull off a crosswind landing.
You just need a positive attitude and a fantastic CFI and lots of reps.
Kemerd@reddit
Yes, it is difficult. Actually, the flying part, taking off. Easy as walking. I could teach you to “fly,” in 30 minutes. The hard part? Landing. Like tight rope walking at 100mph. It never gets easier, you just get BETTER.
Then there’s levels. Once you got that, now you have to maintain altitudes, do constant rate turns, maneuvers, deal with systems, navigation, and LAWS! It is a lot of studying required. In fact, I’d say it is mostly just studying theory sometimes.
Don’t focus on whether or not it’s easy or not. Lock in, trust that, with practice, you WILL get better. It is astonishing how good repetition can make you.
Anyone can do it, in my opinion. I could teach a monkey to fly!
cokeefe4652@reddit
Actually flying is easy, everything outside of that could get harder.
Neuralmute@reddit
Yes, and yes
rFlyingTower@reddit
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This may be a silly question but do you think it is? Is it easy if you practise a lot?
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