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.

Learn to Fly, Learn to Live

I recently saw a poster entitled, "Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten".    I don't recall too much of my time spent in kindergarten (except that Tim Brown liked my plastic Lear Jet toy so much that he tried to take it), but I have learned a lot about life from working on and flying small aircraft.  

1.  Attitude is Important.
Whether rotating at takeoff, configuring for cruise climb, descending for an approach, or flaring to land attitude is key.   Life is like that as well - a good attitude can make a bad situation a little better and can make a good situation great.   

2. Attitude + Power = Performance
For any given aircraft, placing the aircraft in a specific attitude coupled with a specific power setting will result in a specific level of aircraft performance.    Five degrees positive pitch in a wings-level attitude with full power in a Piper Arrow, for example, will eventually yield an 800 foot-per-minute cruise climb at about 115 knots indicated airspeed.    At work and in life, it's not enough to have the correct attitude - success also requires some effort to move forward with that attitude.    To be clear, I'm not referencing political power etc. here but rather plain old hard work - there really isn't any substitute for it.   Also, understand that setting the attitude and power may not result in the desired performance immediately - it can take a bit of time to settle into that cruise climb if you are just coming out of a power dive - but it *will* happen.   

3. Have a Plan, but Be Flexible
I'm not sure that I've ever completed a cross-country flight that went exactly according to plan.   Whether it was a deviation around building weather or ATC advising me, "Arrow One-Niner-Five, Chicago Center, I  have an amended clearance for you.  Advise when ready to copy.", something always pops up.    The key is to be ready and able to accept change.   Don't go charging straight into a thunderstorm just because your plan had you draw a straight line on a map - go around it.   For me, this means living comfortably below our means and saving/investing the difference.  That enables us to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves or deal with unexpected expenses without incurring undue stress.

4. Be the Pilot In Command (PIC)
Section 91.3 of the Federal Aviation Regulations states "The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft."    You, not anyone else, are the PIC for your life and are therefore responsible for it - not your parents, not your boss, not the government.   


5. Maintain Directional Control
Every pilot has a certain capacity to control his aircraft - it starts with the pilot's very first flight and continues to build as he or she gains experience.    Sometimes a situation occurs which exceeds the pilot's abilities and instead of trying to correct the situation, the pilot freezes.   At that point, the pilot is simply along for the ride, occasionally resulting in a starring role in an NTSB report.    No matter what the situation is, be proactive about improving it.   Don't just give up and passively go along for the ride - you might not like where you end up.

6. Superior Pilots
An old adage about superior pilots goes something like this: "A superior pilot is one who uses his superior judgement to avoid needing to rely on his superior skills."      Often, this means studying and thinking about a situation instead of having a knee-jerk reaction.     It also means getting both sides of a story before making a decision, or knowing when to speak and when to shut up.   The best way to win an argument is to not have the argument in the first place, instead finding a solution far enough upstream so as to avoid the conflict entirely.

What about you?  What hobbies/avocations have taught you a life lesson or two?