7 Reasons Student Pilots Quit AND HOW TO AVOID THEM! 

Yeah my instructor one day saw I was getting close to dropping out of flying, so he decided just to do a fun lesson going somewhere scenic with me to keep me engaged.

I wanted to quit after a cross country flight. I had been intimidated by ATC communications and airspace. My instructor explained that I was at a stage which many students quit. I wanted to at least take a break and my instructor wisely said “not a chance” and I continued. I had an excellent aviation career and am now retired. I am also still close with that instructor.

When I was getting my PPL, the thing that always kept me going was thinking of the feeling that would come when I was finally signed off, it was more of a relief and joy than I could ever imagine. Keep pushing, its worth it!

I was almost going to quit because I was with the wrong instructor

Great video :) I totally had almost all those things happen to me. Fortunately I am an extraverted person so I went up and switched instructors after the one instructor yelled at me, it almost ruined flying for me but because I kept going now I have a commercial fixed wing and helicopter license. Happy Flying Everyone :)

Another reason, which is one I’m feeling right now, is frustration. I’m having such a hard time with stalls, I’ve been practicing them over and over again. I get even more annoyed each time I try and fail again. The thought of “I’ll never get this” makes your mind wander about whether you should even bother continuing. I know I’ll get it eventually, so I don’t plan on quitting anytime soon. But I can only imagine many people may consider taking the other route because flying can be very difficult at times. Stick with it, I know it will come.

I almost experienced every reason to quit said in your video and I am still doing it. 1. Money, I lost my job right before my first solo training and I ordered a ipad pro for my flight training one day before lost my job, but luckily, my parent got my back 2. Medical. I am a normal person that feel okay, but I almost failed my 3rd class. I was diagnosed with color blindness(no solo night flight) and OSA(choke youself when you sleep) during that third medical exam . And I never know I have that stuff with me. This was almost the most depressing time I have ever had. Color blindness is fine, but OSA really makes me struggle. My previous instructor and flight school can not help me because they never experienced this before. I read a lot of online forums and asked a bunch of people. Spent thousands of dollars to see doctors in different areas and different countries and bought a CPAP(a treatment device for OSA). Eventually I lost 100lbs and now I almost have 0 OSA symptoms. 3. Priority. This was fine for me, but still I basically temporarily gave up my other hobbies. 4. Wrong Instructor, even wrong flight school. I changed 3 instructors and 2 flight schools. The first flight school was pretty bad, and the instructor was not that good, he was part time at the flight school and availability was very bad. I only flew about 10 hrs in the past whole year. Then I changed to a bigger flight school and had 1 lesson with a CFI then he left the flight school. then finally my third instructor, he is very very good. I fly with him more than what I flew in the past year within a week. 5. Mistake. Couple days ago, I was practicing landings for almost a whole week, almost 7 hours. and I still can't get the speed and throttle control on the final. Everytime I make a mistake, I feel sorry for my instructor for not doing well. He is a very nice guy. He even called and moved other people's appointments to help me to get the right aircraft to practice landing. For me, I am the person that will feel very sorry for my instructor even though I only make very small mistakes. 6. Plane English. Not only plane english, as you read through my comment, you can see that English is my second language. I struggled a lot with ATC comms 7. Flying solo, I felt very nervous and even let my instructor change some of the appointments because I was a little bit afraid of flying solo. My instructor was very nice, he sat down and talked to me for almost an hour just telling me how qualified I am for flying solo without charging me ground training hours. 8. Losing interest. I did lost interest when everyday practicing content was TAP, S Turn, Power on/off stall, slow flight, emergency descent/landing and landings for almost a month. How I overcame this was that I went to the controller.com and started thinking about my budget and what kind of aircraft I can buy and dreaming about the life after owning an aircraft and eventually found out that you can't buy anything with g1000 under 200k which makes me more depressed lol.

I quit half way through my ppl 141 class now I’m in 8k of debt for no reason with a 1k headset I can’t sell😂 The school I went to scammed the hell out of me and my friend… I was at this “stage check” halfway through the ppl course and the schools tester was asking me questions I didn’t even know yet like how to tune VORs when I was supposed to learn them 5 lessons ahead of where I was, and me being a new pilot I don’t know everything and atc cancelled my clearance to land and told me to continue downwind which I did and I was continuing for sometime and the tester screams at me telling me “am I ever going to turn on to base” and I said I never got a call saying to turn so I was just being safe and waiting since I’ve never had that happen and he told me it’s common sense.. I said it not common sense if I’ve never had it happen and I was just trying to be safe. A bunch of things happened as well that ultimately led me to quitting

Great information as always!

For me, weather and not having enough time to fly are really getting in the way of things. I certainly don't want to quit, though. My medical is taking forever - I'm 7 months into waiting so I haven't soloed yet. But I'm still flying regardless because I enjoy the experience and studying just for the sake of it. Remember, even if you get denied your medical, you can still take on other aviation-related jobs and hobbies. You can also still fly - you just can't be PIC. It's still worth it to learn as much as you can. There are also people who have sadly run out of money, but are able to jump back into training once they are financially able. Lastly, I wanna mention that acute health issues can also get in the way and feel discouraging. But don't feel guilty if you need to take a couple weeks off for downtime if you've got the flu or sprained an ankle or something. Chair flying is a good way to keep your routine going if you aren't physically/financially able to get into an actual plane.

Great video Carl I haven't quit yet, but I am at a plateau and I am struggling. I'm not sure if I'm afraid of failure or success. Just thought I would share.

It has been many years since a really aviation intensive war as was WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Smart weapons has resulted in fewer military trained pilots and the Vietnam era airline pilots are retired. The airport where I was the only instructor as late as the 90s now has five full time instructors, but most of the students are not airline candidates. I work with instructors there to encourage the teaching of flying first for primacy and ACS later for test without costing students extra time. Pre-solo requirements and the cost of airplanes and insurance were much less in my day, but all my students soloed in less than ten hours. That got solo in before the first learning plateau, where increase in new learning lessons naturally but it can be psychological. Nothing kills self confidence more than arbitrary delay of solo and twenty hours has by definition some arbitrary delay. We let our children out on a much more dangerous road with less hours of instruction. When at Billy Howell's Ag Flight, I got two new zero timers every other Sunday and had both soloed by Wednesday. They made three landings slowly and softly on the numbers in the 7AC Champ because they hadn't yet learned the much more difficult and less controlled round out and hold off technique of ACS. Check out the stall down landing on page 302--304 of "Stick and Rudder." No, the airlines don't do it that way. But, not all students are going to be airline pilots and even my guys learned the more difficult round out and uncontrolled hold off of ACS. One size does not fit all. Crop dusters who fully use the free ground effect energy of low ground effect and do not bleed kinetic energy going way high over obstructions also have far fewer takeoff fatalities. The TOGA button on the airliner will remove that fatality statistic, but students have to survive their time in a C-172 or Cherokee. If that time involves three seconds at Vx pitch attitude to recognize engine failure...oops, stall at too low an altitude to recover from inadvertent stall. Students who have been around the airport for some time may recognize how they are being hung out to dry at Vx or Vy as appropriate. On our long runways, when is either Vx or Vy appropriate? When "ours not the reason why, ours but to do and die" is the situation we are in, as in the military, we persist. Workarounds of arbitrary and inefficient techniques, on the part of sargents, officers, and instructors helps moral, however. On takeoff we can use the + whatever tolerance in ACS because down low airspeed and not altitude is life. On landing we can use the - whatever tolerance in ACS because banging into terrain and obstructions fast bends more tin and skin than does messing up when "all slowed up and ready to squat," as Wolfgang puts it. Be honest with students. Work with them as much as possible.

For me, Covid hit and I stopped with the intention of going back. I was getting ready for my first solo ~30 hrs)… Haven’t bothered going back. Mostly, I don’t want to “start over” again. Still have that itch from time to time.

I got my first class medical. Now it is time to start working on the paying.

👍✅ Great info as usual Carl!

I don’t want to quit flying but I do struggle with some things. Before I started flying, I knew right off the bat that I wanted to be a pilot. The discovery flight itself was fun and I enjoyed it but I feel so guilty of not getting that exciment like everyone else did on there first discovery flight because on mines although I has fun, I already knew I wanted to this so there was really more of a serious attitude then more excitement idk. When I did a couple lessons however, I felt that excitement burst out of no where and I started feeling it again within me! I was doing great on radio calls by lesson 2 (When I first talked on the radio) and I was getting a lot of credit for that. I felt like “I can really do this!” One thing I want to mention is that before I ever touched an airplane, I was and still am a big flight simulator nerd! I flew so much on simulators I flew mostly big airplanes and sometimes small, I would use this network called Vatsim, where I can talk to people controlling ATC in the sim, I used navigation charts doing instrument approaches and etc. Then when my trading started IRL, I practiced more on small airplanes and really learn or at least get a concept of the idea on how to fly smaller planes. Okay so fast forward to after my third lesson, I was ready to do the next one! Or (Practice for the next one) THEN I had a situation where my family and I had to move and that cost me 9 months of not being able to fly. Still to this day, I haven’t went up in the air and the passion that I have is starting to fade. Most of the reason why I haven’t flown was the financial stress that I have and trying to fly when trying to save is stressful 😭. Then not to mention I’m practicing for a written test so that I can finally get that passed and get to the flying but the amount of stuff I need to study and the consistency is really draining me. I know I want to do this and I really really want to do this it almost feels like if I can’t financially be stable and in a better place, how can I become a pilot. Aviation is still my burning passion till the day I die and will always forever remain in my heart and soul but sometimes I get those thoughts of “your not gonna go through with this’’ “you aren’t worthy of this dream” “Just drop it!” I am ignoring those voices and keeping my head forward but honestly I just want to get back into the air again 😞. I know that there is a lot of studying involved but I’m so used to seeing things up in person and being shown something, then actually sitting down in a table with a book in front of me. I’m more of a visual learner then a book learner. Sorry if this is so long I guess I just needed to vent. There’s a lot more in this but I don’t want to go into deeper detail 🙂. hope you all have a blessed rest of your afternoon, morning, or whatever you all are in the world 😊

Flying is a very rewarding but demanding hobby or career….if you truly love to fly you will overcome all obstacles…..like anything rewarding you need to put the work in to receive the reward….it all takes time no matter who you are…..don’t give up, never quit.

Im on hour 5, and my instructor tends to take too much control and likes to show the maneuvers instead of allowing me to do them. I feel like he is chasing hours. He basically looked around the plane for preflight in just 2 minutes last flight. It made me nervous, and it continued to run through my mind the entire flight, making it harder to focus on the training. I'm just not sure how to choose the proper instructor, cause their flight time doesn't tell you much about their CFI skill.

I am contemplating quitting. I keep doubting myself even though I’ve made it so far in just 3 months I have 75 hours of flight time. I am supposed to be taking my PPL checkride later this month but Im feeling so overwhelmed with the amount of information I’m expected to know. I’m trying my best to stick with it and it feels like I’ve sacrificed so much already to get to where I am so I don’t want to be another statistic. Thank you for making these videos it gives me hope 🙂

Atm I am looking to get a job at the fbo to continue paying for lessons Hoping it works out!

Been working on getting my medical for about a year now because a medical condition, that is allowed by the FAA just needs testing and review.

I stopped flying because I was afraid to solo…I admit it! 😂 pre solo stage check passed, ppl written passed, 1st class medical passed, pre-solo tests passed and then afraid of solo…plus the CFI didn’t care.

Another good reason would be feeling stuck, hitting a wall. It took me 3 months just to make a decent landing if I would call it that. And 6 cross country flights just to be better at maintaining heading. But it felt great to get passed all the struggle I went through and the extra time was worth it.

I was reason number 1 💰,had to stop during my ifr training. I really liked my flight school and my instructor. Had a great time getting my private license

The airline pilots do not like us buzzing around them so the FAA tries to make it hard to get a PPL. IMO the intimidating checkride and especially the oral should be handled by your CFI.

I cant do anyrhing right, i can never keep pich or altitude, procedures, and I cant even remember the steps to go on the downwind and land. My CFI keeps giving me a hard time saying how im wasting his time because I have a little over 14 hourse in total and i still cant fly the plane.

I am having a hard time getting my scores up, I am getting 60 to 70% on my practice tests but I want a bit higher b4 I go for the real test.

I want to get my PPL, become a CFI and eventually CPL: I am a teacher now, and hearing stories of CFI's not really doing their best at their job, even if it is a stepping stone job, makes me concerned

I told my CFI to be better prepared and she didn't like that comment. She was never fully prepared and couldn't even properly demo some of the maneuvers that I had studied in prep for the flight. I was used to a syllabus type lesson, not off the cuff ideas.

I quit only 10 flight hours in. Financial stress as well as all the other stresses you have when you're young. So for me it was money and not having the peace of mind for studying.

I really need to go do a discovery flight. I've only beem putting it off for 20 years

I quit to build my own plane to practice in then use the demonstration of ability at least that was my plan in the 90's when I started. My ground instructor didnt like me. My first flight instructor one flight only, he had the nav light lenses switched around and I missed that on the preflight. We were climbing out to altitude to the practice area I asked what angle climb and what rpm. Eventually I said wait a second this dont fill right and pushed the plane over level. He starts in What are you doin ???? I said it dont feel right he said look at your airspeed it was just startin to go back up. So the was stall about to happen . All right on landing he said just at descent I have control and I said you have control. And just before touchdown he starts screamin help me hold it off help me hold it off. Instantly felt scolded in panic. Ok. At class at break , walkin down the hall he was in the office with my ground instructor. He told him I took one of your students up. Who? Then he ohh bullshit he aint no pilot. Flight instructor told him, I think he a natural. Boy that pissed him off even more. So I found another flight instructor. He kept askin me if I was with the FAA. Just tryin to check him out. As we were landing I was all inthe sweetspot first time easein off throttle gently bout to set down and my second said " there you go man!" And I paniced pulled back and scraped a flat on the tie down ring. O h I was pissed cause man you ever built a model that took months ? THE VERY THING I DONT WANT TO DO IS TEAR A AIRPPLANE UP I WAS PISSED and itwas cause that first instructor.so see why I should just build my own. Besides id have to cheat on the eye chart now to get my medical

What if you don’t have any medical problems?

Quit AFTER an accomplishment. Or at least don't quit until you've achieved something. If you want to be a pilot but training is more than you expected, break it down into smaller chunks. "I'll solo, then I'll quit." Or, "I'll get my Private, then I'll quit." When you've hit a milestone, it gives you a little boost to go further. I told myself I was going to quit after the next step quite a few times. I did that until Commercial. After my Commercial checkride, I wanted that CFI program. If it was easy, everybody would do it.

I just quit this week working in my PPL. The 2 years expired for my written exam. I have run into horrible instructors, poor maintenance and aircraft not being available as well as the FBO switched me from a 172 to a 152. I am 6’5” tall and 300 lbs. the industry has really created a lot of crappy unprofessional staff and instructors. Please note I realize this is not all. But when I grew up the professionalism was much better and the ramp person ran out to direct planes coming student pilot or not. After retiring from the military I thought I now had time to finish and get my PPL. A life long dream shot down by too much crap. I don’t feel safe with a lot of instructors these days as they are in it for themselves.

I saved 10,000 dollars and started my PPL….the money quickly dried out and plenty of excuses came to stop. No money, needed knowledge exam done, wife is pregnant. But I set a personal goal to finish the exam and then jump back. Even if I have to get in debt I just need to finish.

Cost

When the dream is bigger than the fear, you will finish it

Student pilots do quit flying for all these reasons, but those are the lucky ones. Those who don't quit soon find out that GA is tremendously expensive, completely impractical, doesn't fit in almost anyone's lifestyle (if you work you have no time, if you don't work you have no money, and both are required in large quantities to fly GA), and by the way - spoiler alert - most people don't want to go up with you. Realizing all of that and quitting forever soon after the checkride is much worse than quitting for any of the reasons listed in this video.

Here is a list of 6 reasons for college age students, like myself, to consider before going into aviation. That being going to an Flight School or a college program that offers flight training and a degree. 1) If wanting to go into commercial airliners only , you do NOT need a 4 year bachelor’s degree in anything. 2) When he says it is expensive, it is really expensive. Example, I took an online class (AVIA 220), 16k for one class, my other 3 classes (not any aviation classes) were just 3k in total. 3) If you do go through a college program that offers flight school, DO NOT DO ONLINE COURSES FOR GROUND SCHOOL. Straight up awful. I am a straight A student in pre-med path and it was nothing compared to how awful the structure of online ground school was. Expect no structure or help if you decide to go into an aviation program through a college that has flight affiliated flight schools. 4)Make sure to have a friends or people outside of the flight school that are into flying as well. A CFI is just a teacher at the end of the day, you aren’t going to talk to him/her like one of your good friends. Have a group of friends that are pilots too. 5)If you’re a college student like me, it is nothing like a normal experience you would get if you got any other degree out there. 6) This is arguably the one that changed my mind as an aviation major and pilot in general, family and lifestyle. If you want to be a family man, have kids and grow up with them, be there on holidays, baseball, etc. Do not become a pilot, you will never get time off, that being mentally and physically. That is if you want to be a commercial airline pilot. There are some others but I will leave you with these. I was a student pilot going through a college program to become a commercial airline pilot in 2 and 1/2 years. If you have to do any sort of online ground school, I highly recommend not getting an aviation degree and save your money and just go straight to a flight school that offers both.

If you want to transfer from one CFI to another at the same school seems like it would be awkward.

Can I still become an airline pilot with having ADHD ?

Seems like you missed the elephant in the room, which is that the general aviation community seems hide-bound to vintage aircraft and GA aircraft are fossils (especially flight school planes). I mean, I drove out to my discovery flight in a '21 Volkswagen GTI, a modestly nice car. Then I got in the cockpit of a 25 year old (relatively new by flight school standards) Cessna 172 with chalky, faded paint, the design of which was derived from the 152, which was derived from the Cessna 120 and 140, which were designed in the '40s! So the design of the plane I flew is directly descended from planes that were designed right after WWII when Truman was still president. The 172 was introduced in 1954, when Eisenhower was still president! In 1954, you could drive out to your airfield in a new Packard, Edsal, Studebaker, DeSoto, or Rambler - all American-made cars at the cutting edge of design and technology. Back then, Cadillacs had giant fins and bumper bullets that looked like firm, gravity-defying double D-cup breasts for crying out loud! The plane I flew didn't have a single modern amenity or design cue that I could related to, and I'm 64 years old. No matter how well-maintained an older Cessna 172 is, it was still designed nearly 70 years ago and looks like it. Even a brand-new 172 looks like a 70 year old airplane from a black and white movie. Now take a look at a brand-new Tecnam P2008 or Astore ($250k nicely loaded with zero hours) - especially w/o the gaudy graphics that make so many GA aircraft look like grubby old Winnebagos rusting away in trailer parks all over America. The Tecnam has the same basic high-wing layout as a 172, but is light years ahead in design. And like so many things from Italy, it looks like sex! And who doesn't like sex! Then take a peek at a Bristell B23. Inside and out, it stirs the imagination and soul in a way that's not all that different from the dynamic sense of movement people feel when they see an F-16. Spend a minute looking at a JMB VL-3 or, God forbid, a TomarkAero Viper SD4 with its rear-hinged canopy. Even planes that almost look like animé, like the Flight Design F2 (with its 51" wide cockpit!), embarrass the poor bastard driving a 172. But most flight school don’t fly these newer aircraft - instead they stick with Cessnas and Pipers from a bygone era, and most of them are shabby looking on a good day because they are 20+ years old and they show it. The operators of these school say they don’t believe the new LSAs can hold up to the rigors of flight school. But the schools who fly them don’t seem to be having that problem. Seems like many of the flight schools don’t want to fly planes from foreign manufacturers with engines from Rotax that have fuel injection and electronic ignition. Buy 'Murican! I walked away from my discovery flight thinking to myself, “if this is what it’s like, then fuck that.” Once I learned about LSA, my interest perked right back up. Now to find training near me with LSA in their fleet!

What I worry could take me out is not being able to understand ATC on radio. They talk too insanely fast and one can never be guarenteed that would change or get better.

You forgot number 8......being scared shitless when you're up there....!!

money by far is the biggest stresser. i simply can’t afford it so when all my free hours are gone, if i don’t got a job i’m screwed lol.

I quit because I realized I was too old to make that career change and become an airline pilot. It is very expensive to learn to fly just for fun.

Not a CFI…….However, in my local area I see sort of a catch 22 situation in regards to this issue. A. Airmanship ceased to be part of the curriculum a generation of pilots ago. It’s all about “just pass the tests” and “direct to”. Instructors who can’t teach milking students for 30 hours or more while the student is still not prepared to solo. I’m not making this up - I had a freshly minted PP fly with me recently from a local school. This guy had 90+ hours in Cherokees before his checkride. He wanted to try a Cessna so we took a local flight in my 182. He actually flew with his feet flat on the floor. When he tried a normal turn the ball was everywhere. I asked “do you normally fly with no rudder?” to which he replied “oh, we don’t need ‘em up here.” 😳 He could not fly a turn around a point nor had he ever demonstrated a full stall. B. Unprepared students. Today’s average student has the attention span of a gnat. Most have zero interest in actually learning the finer points of aviation. Instead of actually learning most just want to know the answers to pass the exam. Let’s be realistic - most people lack the commitment and dedication to become good pilots. Most of the ones who have the commitment lack the funding. When you combine schools who don’t actually teach (A) with ill-prepared students (B) the result is all too often everyone being fed up with the whole deal and deciding to buy a Tesla instead.

Whoever is thinking about quitting, read this. I'd die to be able to afford getting a PPL, so if you have the money and the interest do NOT quit. Whatever you are going through is just a stone on your shoe.

A $10K+ ppc is just the beginning of the 💰🕳️! Wait until you start wanting to rent for a weekend or heaven forbid a week vacation or purchase your own plane. Then you’ll buy the $900 headset x 4! Then you’ll mostly land near farm fields or industrial parks. Time for the expensive rental car unless you like walking 5-30 miles. Now $5-10K in hangar rent/insurance per year. Another $5-10K on maintenance/repairs/upgrades. Of course you can register your aircraft to a fake Delaware or your local corporation, then write your fun toys/vacations off on your corporate taxes, like most aircraft flying overhead nowadays. Guess who pays for that? Consumers.

A lot of good pilots out there that just can't afford it. Every year it gets more out of reach.

You didn't cover anxiety lots of people drop out for the reason.

Im not lazy or specifically a quitter but the math is the end of me. My brain does not do math. :( :(

Yep, I ran out of money.

The only thing I'm concerned about is my medical Marijuana use.

Spending over $100,000 for a job that doesn’t exist.

How can I get inconsiderate pilots from flying low over my house every day & night? The FAA is worthless to make complaints to. I'm sick of picking up broken glass caused from the vibration of loud aircraft.