I'm not sure I agree. Looking over the shoulder is embedding the 'cockpit pov' very much like teaching guitar and having the student look over your shoulder to get the notes correct. I've taught this for years and my students (the ones that stuck with the hobby) all fly with feet firmly planted and very little body english (except when the pucker factor rises ). The guitar students eventually learn to overcome the need to look over my shoulder as well.

To extend the analogy I think of it more like looking down at the fretboard... eventually you don't have to, and you don't have to "un-learn" looking at it.

Playing the short cut 'flat-fingered' bar chords or stretching/sliding to avoid using the pinky is analogous to the 'prop low the wing' shortcut and takes much work to "un-learn".

When I was learning to fly, I pushed the stick in the direction of the drooping wing. After a while, it became second nature, and I did it automatically. Also, instead of looking over my shoulder, I would pivot one of my feet in the direction the plane was heading. For instance, if the plane was heading from left to right, I would pivot my right foot to the right. This gave me a point of reference without feeling like I was playing Twister. Actually I only remember doing this for landings. When I was "three mistakes high", I was more relaxed and gradually learned to correct input mistakes without worrying about crashing. I quess I quit pivoting my foot as my hand muscle memory developed.

But, the best thing I ever did was download the FMS flight sim. It really accelerated my comfort level with the controls. Not long after, I was doing split S's, cubans, hammerheads, inverted flight, etc. I'm not tearing up the skies, but I'm having a lot more fun.

I found the 'think you are the arrow' suggestion in this thread very interesting.

I'm going to try that next time I fly.

-David C.

I fly by getting my brain in the airplane. It's the only way to go, the other things are just ways to help you get to where you are flying brain-in. Personally, I learned with the "stick to the low wing" method, and I tend to prefer that to the over-the-sholder method when teaching, and as long as you eventually start thinking as if you are in the plane, it doesn't matter. Guys who still look over their sholder after flying a few years are the ones I watch out for

One advantage to getting the brain in the plane is that you don't have to see it all the time, and you loose orientation a lot less. I've had moments where I couldn't tell which way a plane was going visually, but since I KNOW what the plane is doing, and nothing strange happened, I know what the orientation is, even if my eyes can't fill in all the details, the brain knows the rest.

it also helps dramaticaly when things go wrong and you have to go for a save. People who have been flying long enough start to fly by reflex and "feel" and that only comes with getting the brain in the aircraft, even if they don't think of it that way. It's that instictive knowledge of what way is left and right and up and down, no matter what the plane is doing.

I suggest a simulator. After a few hours on it you should be fine. I have found when I make mistakes it is when I am thinking about it. The sim help me not think about it. I become one with the plane as I fly and fly on instinct.

Flightspoiler,

Where are you flying? If you're looking for a place to fly, come say Hi some weekend.

www.wcrcaf.com

CP140
I fly out at fry's corner Cloverdale.
I checked your posted web site. I have heard excellent things of your club. Neat to know people in this hobby can reside so close and not even knowing who they are.
Thanks for the invite, if I'm out your way I'll stop in and say hello.
Cheers Al

I agree wholeheartedly about the sims helping. I know they did it for me.

To help keep my sense of left and right straight, I painted teh wingtips of my trainer red and green, respectively. Now I don't think about left and right, if I want to turn to the red side, I know that's left and vice versa for green just like on a boat or full scale plane.

Use the most brilliant flourescent colors you can find and you'll always have a visual cue as to which wing is which.


Ed

"Prop up the low wing with the stick" is what helped me through this. I downloaded a freeware flight simulator (http://n.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html), and used it with a gamepad. It is not good enough to really learn how to fly, but for practicing the orientation issue it was great.

To me, this was the hardest thing to learn bar none. My advice is NOT to turn sideways, etc. Learn to deal with this so that it becomes instinctive. Contorting your body, which I tried, just added another thing to do. When the plane's on the other side of the field, in some trouble perhaps, and maybe even in some bad light, you need to be able to just "fly" the plane. I have a friend who has to fly this way, and he ends up breaking the zero-line rule alot, and cannot fly a right-hand pattern to save his life.

It is very frustrating, and hard to get, but the good news is that one day (after weeks of trying) the switch seemed to flip and I "had it."

Good Luck.

Good advice thanks