One of the pilot message boards that I "lurk" on now and then started a topic of discussion that basically asked pilots what life lessons they feel they've learned as a direct result of flying. That tweaked my interest a bit, and since it's Tuesday and I haven't done a Top Ten in awhile, and I'm feeling (way too) wordy, I figured I'd turn it into a Top Ten.
Ten Things I've Learned From Flying
1. Trust your instincts. Might as well start off with one that will make me sound crazy. :) When I first started taking lessons, Ernie, an experienced pilot and instructor, pulled me aside and gave me a piece of advice that actually stuck. He told me that there would come times that something just "felt" wrong, and that when those times came, not to ignore or fight them, but to listen to them. That even if I couldn't explain what was wrong or why, I should pay attention to those feelings of "wrongness". He, being a very logical and reasonable person, made an impression on me with that "hoo-doo sounding" thing, and I filed it away. The first time something felt "wrong", I was a student pilot, and I tried to talk myself into something that didn't feel right but for absolutely no good reason I could come up with; and then those words came back to me. So after an inner debate of logic vs advice, I cancelled a solo flight I had already fired up and started taxiing out on for no "good" reason, feeling a little dumb, and with the ire of my instructor because time is precious and I couldn't give him a reasonable explanation. I won't go into all the details, but I found out the next day that I had in fact made the right decision, even though I hadn't known why, and I'd saved myself an unpleasant experience. Since then, there have been very few times I didn't listen to that "little voice", and in more than just flying, and rarely have I been wrong. There may be times I was cautious and didn't need to be, but frankly, that's much better than the alternative, isn't it. It's not easy to follow your instincts and not talk yourself into or out of things. (That guy just doesn't sit right with me, but he's never done anything to make me not trust him... That kind of thing.) I appropriately trusted my instincts in flying over the years so many times that it firmly cemented the truth of the lesson for me in life, too. Oh, I still argue with myself now and then, but usually if I catch myself doing it, I stop and just accept whatever it is my "gut" is telling me, even if my logic can't explain it. When I don't catch myself doing it is when I regret it later, and say to myself "I KNEW better..." So, Life Lesson #1-Trust your instincts, God gave them to you for a reason!
2. Don't Quit Flying-Fly it All the Way Down. A good portion of pilot training is about emergency procedures. What do you do if your engine quits, if your electronics fail, if you have a fire, if your gear won't come down, if you get lost, if you get stuck in bad weather, if if if. I'll tell you what you DON'T do. You don't throw your hands in the air, scream, cover your eyes and wait for the inevitable, or it WILL be the inevitable. You don't give up. You don't panic. As long as you have control over that airplane, you control it. You control It. Not the other way around. I don't know what the exact statistics are, but the majority of aircraft fatalities are due to pilot error, and a good portion of pilot errors only turn fatal because the pilot freaked out and Quit Flying The Airplane. A Learjet in California which lost its baggage compartment door on take off and crashed because the pilot focused totally on that problem instead of on his flying. Even the non-fatal ones. The pilot who bounces the landing into a porpoise, and rather than flying the airplane, just hangs on for the ride until the nose wheel sheers off and he comes to an unglamourous halt in the dirt. A controlled landing onto a field, water or trees has a statistically massive improvement on chance of survival over an UNcontrolled landing onto a field, water or trees. You have to keep flying the plane until the plane can't fly any more. Bottom line? You can't just hang on for the ride in life, or you'll end up in an unglamourous pile in the dirt. You can't focus on one little problem, or the big picture will come crashing down around your ears. You can't just give up, because the moment you do, you no longer have a chance. All that to say, life lesson #2-no matter how scary it gets, don't give up!
3. Winging it is fun, but preparation is key. So to speak. ;) I've always been kind of a 'just go with it' kind of person. But in flying, 'winging it' has a slightly different meaning. Even the most basic "hop in and go for a few trips around the pattern" flight requires proper preparation. You have to make sure the plane is airworthy. You have to make sure the weather is within your capabilities. You have to make sure the plane will make it off that runway that day with those conditions. You have to make sure there isn't a problem flying in the airspace that day. You have to make sure you are healthy and capable enough that day. That you are current to do whatever you're about to go do legally. If you're actually Going somewhere, your preparations just got a lot more extensive. Not checking any of these things accounts for a good percentage of accidents/incidents. Fuel starvation, over-running a runway, an un-caught maintenance issue, busting a Temporary Flight Restriction or other airspace, etc. For most pilots, this stuff is a process that goes very quickly, almost without effort, but it is there none-the-less. A person doesn't have to make a massive production out of the whole thing, but in flying, like in life, some preparation will make for a much more safe and pleasant experience. :)
4. To Succeed, You're Going to Have to Face Some Fears. Flying can be a tough thing to break out into that next level, because there's only one way to get good at it. You push past where you are comfortable, sometimes all the way to the place where you are UNcomfortable, and you learn from it. But there's a fine line here, because if you push too far too fast, it can bite you. If you don't push far enough, you will never get any better than you currently are. Anyone who has flown for very long will come to a time when they get scared, and that's a crossroads for pilots. Either they slowly (or sometimes quickly) quit flying because of it, they stay right where they are and never do anything else, or they learn from it, work through the fear, and come out the other side an even better pilot. Life's the same way. If you never take the risk, never take the shot, you will never achieve anything beyond where you already are. If you push too far, you might fall on your face, you might make mistakes...and how you handle those mistakes and those risks will define your future.
5. The Worthiest Goals Take Effort. It takes a minimum of 40 hours to get a pilot's license. It takes passing a large "written" exam, an "oral" exam and a "flight" exam. You have to be able to recite regulations, handle emergencies, navigate to other places, know an airplane's systems, and of course fly and perform maneuvers within certain standards. It is no impossible task, but it sure isn't a cake walk either. If it were simple, we'd have a lot more people doing it. But what an accomplishment! To be able to FLY. Nothing in life that is worthwhile comes easily. Not the career you may want, the marriage, the relationship with God, the physical fitness/health. These things come at the cost of a lot of time, effort, tears. If they were simple to achieve and maintain, they wouldn't be nearly as valuable or valued.
6. Patience. This is not my strong suite, but it is indeed a life lesson you can pick up in flying. There's an aviation idiom that goes something along the lines of "If you're in a hurry, drive." In order to be able to make a trip somewhere, a lot of things have to come together the right way all at once. Sometimes you'll get all ready to go, only to find out the plane has an alternator failure, or a bad mag, or a failed radio. At this point, you get to unpack your plane and pack your car and drive. Sometimes you will wait for days straight for round after round of thunderstorms to go through, or fog to lift. If you are in a hurry, if you HAVE to be somewhere at a specific time, you are better off not planning on flying; and if you do fly, you'd better learn a little bit of patience. If you are patient, then it will usually work out in the end. If you lose your patience and try to push forward anyway, it rarely ends well. In aviation-speak it's called "Get-Home-Itis", and it is a killer. Life always goes a little more smoothly when you practice patience. Now if only I could keep that in mind on the roads... :)
7. Practice Doesn't Make Perfect. Actually, practice can sometimes do nothing but cement in bad habits. Practice is very important, but so is going up with someone who can help evaluate where you are and what you're doing and constructively critique and point out areas in which you can adjust your practice. This is one reason why Flight Reviews are required for pilots. I've flown with more than one pilot who did things a lot less safely than a student pilot, because once they got their license they did things their own way for a long enough period of time without crashing that they felt they now had it all covered, when in reality what they were doing was just...headshakingly bad. Nothing can make "perfect", but Evaluated Practice Can Make Better, and in fact is really a "must". My family is rare-we have two experienced flight instructors who fly together all the time. This could be bad on a marriage, but fortunately in our case it usually works very well. :) It's practically impossible to keep "current" on every facet of flying we do, so there are times I've gone up with him and he's helped tweak in a few things on me, and times he's gone up with me and I've helped tweak in a few things on him. We both value not just currency, but proficiency, and we try to better ourselves each time...with not just pounding out landings, not just practice, but evaluated and tweaked-in practice. We're a tough crowd sometimes, but we're also pretty good at what we do...and that's partly why.
8. Always wear deodorant in a C-152. Okay, I totally stole that one. But man, it's so funny, and so true, that I had to say it anyway. Um, those are *really* tiny little 2-seat airplanes, and you are almost literally in the lap of the person next to you. It's called a "three-arm airplane", because you can't sit shoulder to shoulder with all four arms down at the sides, and thus one person usually has one of their arms around behind the back of the other person. Therefore, deodorant-and a breath mint-is usually wise! Life lesson? Uh, that IS the life lesson! Nobody likes a stinker?? ;)
9. Make Every Flight Count. Some day it will be the last time you're able to go up in the air. Maybe for medical reasons, maybe financial, who knows. But flying is a temporary thing, with a finite lifespan. Work at it, appreciate it, enjoy it, make it count. It's a privilege and a joy, not to be taken for granted. I doubt I have to spell out the corollary Life Lesson there, do I? :)
10. Perspective. This truly is one of the best lessons I've learned from flying. After being unceremoniously dumped, I found a lot more solace than I expected just from flying. I would look down, and the houses and cars and trees just seemed so small, it made everything else down there seem small and far away, including problems. I can't explain why, but it worked for me then and works for me today, too. When you are a mile in the air, nothing else seems that big. More importantly, it can give you a glimpse of the bigger picture. As I've said before...there's nothing like taking a cold, gray, depressing day, climbing in an airplane, flying through all that, and breaking out on top where the sun is shining, the sky is blue above, and all is still and bright. You get to see what everybody else down on earth can't-that the layer of gloom is limited, temporary; that above it is clear and clean. You get...perspective.
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