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By ibird
#400809
I have taken at least 11 classes so far and spent slightly over 1500$ but didn't even get a H1 rating.

I am starting to wonder if I am such a slow learner and if I should continue to try to learn. The desire is there but can't continue with the projected cost estimate.

Does it typically take so many lessons. I can maintain a straight path and land decently and occasionally flared too.
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By red
#400811
ibird wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 3:09 amI have taken at least 11 classes so far and spent slightly over 1500$ but didn't even get a H1 rating. I am starting to wonder if I am such a slow learner and if I should continue to try to learn. The desire is there but can't continue with the projected cost estimate. Does it typically take so many lessons. I can maintain a straight path and land decently and occasionally flared too.
Ibird,

One lesson per week would give you very slow progress. More time between lessons would make things even worse. How much time passed, between lesson #1 and lesson #11?

My web page (linked below) will give you some idea of how to go about taking lessons, in an ideal world. The HG Simulator there will also be very helpful. Generally, the more time taken between each lesson, the less you will remember for the next lesson. Two lessons per week (but not more) will give you the best results, in terms of learning speed.
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By RobertKesselring
#400813
I trained at LMFP and got my H1 and H2 in the span of 2 weeks. I did see people there who had been trying to train only on weekends and had been at it for months. If there's any way you can get a bunch of training days together in a short time span, that will make a huge difference.

Where are you training BTW?
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By flybop
#400826
Don't fall into the trap of comparing your learning curve with others. There are too many variables to try and do that. I agree with Robert. Find a good school, take a week or more there and get as many lessons in as short a time as possible. I did just the opposite and it ended up taking longer and costing more.

Tell us more about yourself: Where are you from, how old, general fitness level, any aviation experience, etc?

Learning to fly (anything) can be expensive. However, if the drive is there you will be able to make it happen. Good luck and keep us posted.
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By DAVE 858
#400850
ibird wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 3:09 am I have taken at least 11 classes so far and spent slightly over 1500$ but didn't even get a H1 rating.

I am starting to wonder if I am such a slow learner and if I should continue to try to learn. The desire is there but can't continue with the projected cost estimate.

Does it typically take so many lessons. I can maintain a straight path and land decently and occasionally flared too.
I will say that is a lot of lessons to not obtain at least an H1 rating. Can I ask where & who you are training with?
By ibird
#400856
I need to try taking more than one class a week. Thanks for the suggestions. I will try to report my progress.
I am generally fit and learn new things fairly quickly.
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By RobertKesselring
#400857
Definitely more than 1 training session per week.
When I did it, I sometimes did 2 sessions in a day, plus instructional tandem flights in between. For 2 weeks, it was my one and only objective. Not saying everyone has to do it that way, or should do it that way, but hitting it hard and fast is what worked for me.

Here's a link to a web-log I kept during my training. Hopefully there is something useful there you can learn from my experience.
viewtopic.php?t=33072
By ibird
#400858
Thank you Robert for documenting your hang gliding training. Great for people like me.
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By remmoore
#400859
I think there could be a few factors affecting the speed at which a student advances. One of them may be the instructor's style. I had 7 lessons over about a 2-month period and was very near my H2 at the end of instruction. I seriously doubt I was a particularly fast learner, but I had an excellent instructor who didn't seem to believe in the slow track. He had me launching from 2000' after lesson day 4 and I trusted his judgment that I was ready.

I really don't know how typical my training length was, but I continued to advance through the rating system at a "normal" pace to my H4, which I got about 3 years after my first lesson.

RM
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By red
#400861
ibird wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 6:39 pmThank you Robert for documenting your hang gliding training. Great for people like me.
Ibird,

There are some places and instructors that consider even a single flight as a "lesson," but it's more usual to be out learning for maybe half a day, as one lesson. Where I am located, one morning of HG instruction would wear out the best of athletes, and the turbulence of the afternoons would put a second lesson after lunch completely out of the question for any new pilot, and most experienced pilots as well. If you can manage to learn maybe half a day at a time (totally disregarding how that episode may be described by locals), then you are doing well for yourself. A second "lesson day" in the same week, a couple/few days later, will really improve your rate of progress and skills.

A lesson day, once a week, is going to be a slow and expensive way to go. Please do not think that you are a "slow learner," because almost anybody would have similar results, with only one "lesson day" per week. You are learning a physical skill as well as the flying, and all this is normal. Once you acquire these special skills, you will not lose them easily, and you can continue your personal flying at a more relaxed schedule.

If you read my web page, I strongly recommend that you go out and watch HG lessons being taught to other new pilots, on the"off" days when you do not take a lesson for yourself. Allow yourself to physically mimic the actions of the flying students that you watch. It all helps. 8)

Best wishes.
.
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By dbotos
#400892
A few of these questions are a repeat of ones others have asked, but I'm curious to know:

-where are you training?
-who is your instructor?
-what type(s) of training? training hill? scooter tow? aerotow?
-what glider(s) have you been flying?
-what kind of conditions have you been flying in?
-what aspects of learning to fly have you had trouble with / needed to spend extra time on?
-what aspects have come easily to you?
-how would you rate your instructor's feedback? Do they review the strengths and weaknesses of each flight with you afterwards?
-how many students are in each lesson?
-how long is each lesson?
-how rusty do you feel you get between lessons (i.e. how much of each lesson is spent getting back to where you left off from the previous lesson)?
-are you taking notes about each flight? A 3x5" notebook and a small pen can easily be stuffed in a pants pocket or training harness pocket if it has one.
-what kind of ground schooling have you had, from an instructor and/or reading material on your own?
-have you talked to other students or more experienced local pilots about their experiences with your particular school and/or instructor?

I'm sure I'm forgetting some other questions, but hopefully we can help you some more based on answers to the above. I myself am one of those pilots taking the long road to my H2. I started back in July of last year and earned my H1 in December after 5 lessons (roughly 1 per month). At that point, I was scooter towing up 150 feet or so, releasing, flying down with speed, and doing foot landings. My intention was to keep training at least once a month through the winter, but mother nature had other plans. I didn't fly again until April of this year. I'd been off for three months plus I also started flying a Wills Wing Falcon (had been on an Alpha previously), so it took me a few lessons to shake the cobwebs out and get used to the different handling of the Falcon (mostly the speed to fly and the fact that you have really have to let it bleed off energy before you flare unless you want to rocket to the moon). A few more lessons this summer (I had a couple months where I went twice a month) and I'm now at a total of 14 lessons with my primary instructor (I also did 2 lessons this summer at the dunes in Kitty Hawk while on vacation). I graduated from the scooter on my last lesson and will be truck towing on my next lesson. I wouldn't consider myself a slow learner - quite the opposite. I've read a good bit about hang gliding and understand plenty of the physics behind it, but like a lot of things in life, it takes longer to do something for real and get proficient at it than it does to understand it on paper or in your mind. My instructor has told me that the key to advancing in hang gliding training is consistency. Anyone can get lucky and do something right one time, but repeatedly demonstrating the necessary skills at your current level is what signals that you're ready to advance and start working on new things.