I really liked last night’s thread about the night before and somewhere while reading it, another question crossed my mind:
When studying the theory for the PPL (and probably the higher grade licenses…) you are being made aware what sort of characteristics make a good pilot. Obviously, each one of us has certain strengths and weaknesses, i.e. fulfills some of these characteristics better than others. How aware is everyone about their respective strengths and weaknesses – and how comfortable are you talking talking about these?
I’ll make a start. I obviously don’t mind discussing this online, otherwise I wouldn’t start this thread. With people outside of the forum world it’s a bit more delicate as any person that I’m close enough with to share such things is a potential passenger and it needs careful consideration if discussing flying weaknesses with people who then might step into an airplane with you is a good idea. It depends a lot on the person and how pragmatic vs. emotional/fearful they are.
In terms of core flying skills, i.e. handling the aircraft, I guess I’m average for my hours. I’m not flying by the “seat of my pants”, I’d say, I’m not “one” with the airplane, I’m not a born pilot in that sense and I’m happily improving. But I’ve walked away from any landing so far, so they were all good. 
I have good eye sight, but I’m not a very good “listener”. I notice this outside aviation, too: I have more problems than others understanding what’s being said especially in a louder environment. It translates into difficulties understanding what’s being said no the radio sometimes. Additionally, I find it hard to visualize numbers that are passed to be aurally (i.e. squawk codes, headings etc.) – I understand the numbers, but it’s “hard” to bring them into sequence. I.e. a squawk code 4420. I have to consciously think if it was 4420 or 4402.
In terms of personality, I think what’s good is that I am a rather calm person. While I do get nervous in certain situations (first time taxiing in EDDH, boy was I sweating), I do not tend to get worked up over things, I don’t get aggressive (I’m also a reasonably fast, but rarely aggressive car driver). I believe this can help in an emergency situation (but I haven’t had any so far). On the other hand, I’m not very fast in terms of reaction speed (I’m lousy at table soccer due to that). I.e. I would probably stay calm enough (hopefully) to handle an en-route emergency situation. I’m more worried about not reacting fast enough and making a quick decision in near-ground emergency situations where every second counts (i.e. during take-off and approaches/landing). I also value airmanship a lot and even if, naturally, I don’t always get everything right (once, in the very beginning, I started the engine while blowing directly into an open hangar full of model aeroplanes) I take pleasure and pride in always trying to improve. It’s part of the “flying experience” for me.
I would actually consider a lack of deep understanding and an appreciation of weather as the weakest spot. I feel pretty confident in using weather products that are very clear about current and upcoming conditions – that includes interpreting METARs, TAFs, radar images, the GAFOR image in Germany (knowing that local conditions can differ from area conditions), etc. I’m less good at really understanding weather and weather systems and that translates into difficulties properly interpreting such charts as Low Level SWC etc. Also, the text forecast that’s available on DWD has two sections, one describing the weather systems (less relevant for me) and one clearly describing the resulting conditions for VMC (more relevant for me). Having said all that, I’ve not had any really hairy situations and I’ve so far cancelled all flights that seemed dodgy to me.
Another lack in terms of knowledge/understanding is the technical aspects of the aircraft. Compared to my understanding of car engines before flying, this has VASTLY improved. I used to just accept that the car drives – like a black box. While studying for the PPL, I was eager to learn and understand more about how the engine works, how it all connects etc. Still – it’s not going to make a very tech-savvy person. I’m skeptical about flying trips to places where fixing things (e.g. spark plugs) would have to be dealt with by me – it’s just not really my “thing” and I have a lot of respect for people who can do that. Within Europe, no worries. Flying to and in Africa on a self-organized tour? Only if a mechanic comes with me.
Now I’m curious what others have to say – especially how those with lots of experience perceive their weaknesses!
Ohne weakness I noticed 2 times today: approaching to high when flying (VFR) to unfamiliar airports. Then feeling stupid when touching down somewhere along the runway. Some people on here advocate these “engine-failure approaches”, but I will do something about it 
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I’m almost never happy with my visual approaches – particularly not VFR with a full traffic circuit. I do arrive at the threshold with the correct speed, but getting there isn’t always pretty.
Doing touch-and-goes at my home airfield doesn’t help much as in that place I know exactly what the traffic circuit is supposed to look like with reference to the geography.
First, I also liked the thread about the night before which made me realize I am not alone. I like this one as well because it shows I am not alone here either. I read your (@Patrick’s) description of strong and weak points and mine are pretty similar. For example weather-wise I feel exactly the same – I understand the products but my interpretation of the “future” is not that good. However I’ve noticed that more experienced pilots are not that much better and my lack of long-term planning and long flights is probably a contributor as well.
As to my personal strengths and weaknesses, I like to follow the rules and make things as well as possible. I follow checklists and procedures as best as I can and all my instructors have always said that I am much more structured than most pilots. However I don’t have so much experience and I’ve changed a lot of airplane types (especially for my hours). I’ve also done multiple trainings and have flown with instructors approximately 50% of my time, so very often I had a backup at the right seat. I notice that I get nervous when I am not very current and I start making mistakes which I usually don’t. To counteract this I try to be as concentrated as possible and double check everything with the check list, even at the by heart parts. However errors still happen but I’ve been lucky that none was serious enough. I also know that usually (if not always) there is a chain of errors that leads to a problem, so I try hard to break the chain even if a single error is inevitable from time to time.
I have an issue remembering things by heart which becomes a problem with some checks (e.g. FAF in IR) and I have to go over them over and over again, before each flight, just to make sure that I don’t forget something. After reading about the gear up landings on the forum, I now try to always “check” that gear is down, even on fixed gear airplanes, just to try to proactively make my mind thing about it on every landing.
Talking about landings, I have an issue with landings every now and then. I have periods when landings are good but other periods when all my landings are awful. OK, I’ve always walked out by myself and the airplane could always be reused, so one can define them as “perfect” ;) but I don’t like them and my instructors don’t like them. Changing airplane types doesn’t help much (because the view point and references are always different) so the only thing I can do is practice, practice and practice again.
Patrick thank you for starting this thread.
Looking back there were times when I was over confident, or too mission focused resulting in pressing on when a diversion would have been the sensible step taken by a pilot with better airmanship. Having successfully accomplished the flight there is a real risk that your ego will risk adjust, and set a new baseline in poor airmanship or judgment! I now try and err on the conservative side, and plan to have time to spare to ensure I don’t need to press on. Having got my PPL in the winter in British Columbia, I still have to curb my lets ‘go up and have a look’ attitude on a day where there is marginal weather around.
More time should be devoted to teaching and briefing diversions and precautionary landings, both in initial and during renewal. The CAA safety evenings are good forums where this is discussed. Also having a good separation between VFR and IFR planning – there was a good article in the last UK AOPA magazine on this. The Super Cub makes this easier with no gyros and a nice placard saying ‘Day VFR only’.
The most useful aspect of some of the theory is understanding the planning and performance limitations for Class B versus Class A, and trying to build this into your standard procedures. I have grown to appreciate that SEP IFR, if planned correctly, is a good safe environment, and today am probably more comfortable with this environment than MEP in low/hard IFR.
Like all pilots, I have no weaknesses. I’m a skygod – I don’t make mistakes.
One weakness I have is getting very frustrated with those who do not use standard RT when in the circuit. I also think it is imcumbent upon us all to help “educate” those who need a bit of encouragement to use the radio, it is there for the safety of everyone. I approached (very cautiously indeed) a pilot who had made no radio call in the circuit, really to see if he needed any help or had a radio problem, only to find it was the local CFI who really appeared to not care.
I have had the same aircraft for a good many years and regularly practice landings for example without reference to an ASI etc. If this is what is called seat of the pants flying then I think it is a worthwhile exercise.
My main weakness is in thinking that everyone should be as:-
Witty, charming, wonderful, intelligent, good looking, thoughtful, wonder pilot, super god, as me………….
My main strength is when I found out, they were not……
My weaknesses are quickly losing skill if I do not fly often, and becoming complacent if I fly frequently. My strengths are a high level of cowardice and a strong desire to survive.
I think everybody has strengths and weaknesses.
My main plus is probably understanding aircraft systems. I never seem to have any problems flying, too, but it’s hard to say to what extent this is due to having a plane which handles very well and had loads of power so screwing up is quite hard to do. I fly nothing else but the TB20, these days.
It’s an interesting topic how much aircraft technical knowledge is required to fly well. Perhaps not much at all. I know a pilot or two who almost certainly cannot check the tyre pressures on a car, but flies well. OTOH, to such a pilot, strange aircraft issues are going to appear as true mysteries, and will erode confidence. It also makes it more difficult to deal with whoever does the maintenance because their approach will seem truly mysterious. Probably OK if you just throw money at it.
Situational awaress is clearly vital. Without it, you will not have the confidence to fly more than a few tens of nm. But that may be fine for aerobatics, much of which is done very locally.
Biggest weakness? I wish I could understand weather. But I have never met anybody else who evidently does. Lots of pilots can roll off the theory…
