If You Want to Learn, You'll Stop Doing This.

This week I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of the more renowned  flight instructors in the upper midwest.   Tom Berge, owner of RV Transition LLC, graciously granted me time on his schedule to get some instruction in an aircraft that is very similar to the one I have been building and hope to fly sometime in the next couple of months.

Tom is very thorough; as he talked about the various aspects of flying a high performance homebuilt like the Van's RV series, I listened intently.    As he spoke, I was able to connect bits and pieces of what he was explaining with my own experiences in other types of aircraft to better understand the material he was presenting.   I was impressed with his knowledge and ability to explain the material.

After the lesson, on the way home, my thoughts drifted to something I had seen some years ago.   A cocky young pilot and his instructor were talking nearby and I thought back to their conversation.   It seemed like every word from the instructor was met with some know-it-all response or perhaps a statement phrased as a question designed to impress the instructor with the student's knowledge.   The instructor let it go, but the student was almost too much.   As I recalled that conversation, I couldn't help but think how odd that someone would pay an instructor to teach them only to try and impress the instructor with their own knowledge.   I wonder how much more quickly the lesson might have gone had the student simply shut up and listened.   And, I wonder, how much time and money the student might have saved by not having to repeat lessons.

I've seen this scene repeated elsewhere by many different types of people, in many types of situations.   And I've seen it enough to know that it is not uncommon.   Try this - next time you are in a position of learning something new, take a moment to observe how you act.  Do you listen intently, or wait to ask the person you are learning from a question which was designed to demonstrate your own vast knowledge?    Do you really want to learn, or is your desire to learn combined with a desire to impress others?

Fortunately, that brash young pilot from years ago learned the errors of his ways, and today is much better at being quiet and soaking up wisdom from those who are willing to offer it.  And, I'm happy to report, that same pilot is well on his way to being able to competently prosecute the flight test program for his Van's RV-6A in the not too distant future, thanks to the tutelage of a wise instructor named Tom.