Many of us became interested in learning to fly because of the individual challenge and achievement that it brought to our lives. In most cases, piloting a typical general aviation aircraft is a very personal endeavor. The very nature of our first milestone's being that of a "solo" flight reinforces that this is not a team sport or group activity. The next step is the daunting solo cross-country, once again built upon the premise that you can do it yourself. Once we achieved our private pilot certificates, it wasn't another pilot we wanted to take up — it was a nonpilot relative or friend, in order to demonstrate our newly acquired skill. After all, flying with another pilot would mean negotiating who sits in the left seat and who handles the radios; and, as we all know, there is room in the cockpit for only one "captain."
In my student pilot days, there were three of us who worked at the same place and tried to earn our certificates at around the same time. While we obviously couldn't fly together, we could definitely share experiences, concerns, and questions about our individual training. Naturally, competition arose over how many hours it took to solo and other training benchmarks, but even this stimulus created an environment that encouraged staying with it and accomplishing the goal.
The first of us to take the knowledge test was not the winner. Instead, the other two of us benefited from the memory quiz we gave that individual after his test — it helped to prepare us for the questions that he could remember. Not to mention the challenging private pilot practical test with an FAA-designated examiner. What cross-country did he have you plan? Where did he pull the power for the emergency landing? Did you have to land in a crosswind? It is this group process that has served many of us so well.
As new private pilots, we soon had visited every airport restaurant within an hour's rental time from our home airport. It became evident that many of us needed more than just short hops. But how can one afford them, and what if we get stuck somewhere? No longer is the instructor waiting back at the flight school for our return as on our solo cross-country training flight.
The opportunity arose recently for my wife — who fits the "short hop" pilot description perfectly — to fly our Cessna 172 some 330 nautical miles from our home base at Frederick, Maryland, to Sporty's at Batavia, Ohio. This proved to be an excellent trip to pair Lois with Karen, an AOPA employee and private pilot of less than three months, to reinforce their cross-country skills and accomplish the longest flight that each would have made — without a more experienced pilot on board.
While the weather was predicted to be marginal for the Saturday flight, both began looking at the long-range forecasts to better understand the big picture. Each produced a flight log with all the waypoints and figured fuel burn and the fuel stop needed. They determined who would get the final weather update, file the VFR flight plan, handle the radios, and call approach for traffic advisories. At sunrise they were off. The flight went without a hitch.
Both came away from this flight eager to do it again, this time, perhaps, solo. Individually, neither would have attempted such a trip for some time to come. Group therapy at work?
As one advances through higher ratings, the concept of partnering becomes even more important. Lois and Karen had an easy weather decision. If it wasn't VFR, they couldn't go. But what happens as you add an instrument rating? Now the decision making becomes even more complex. How much of your training was in actual weather? Have you assessed your skill under tougher than simulated-IFR conditions, and what about icing or embedded thunderstorms? A lot more decision making is required as your ratings and type of aircraft flown allow for more all-weather operations. Once again, that confidence-building technique of sharing the work load with another pilot can make a lot of sense and provide substantial experience for future solo trips. The trite phrase "two heads are better than one" can apply to all cockpits.
This winter I found myself flying an unfamiliar aircraft with the prospect of having to use ice- or snow-covered runways. A business trip was planned from the Washington, D.C., area to Kansas City and back. The weather was predicted to be horrible — freezing rain, snow, and ice pellets. The pilot's operating handbook didn't predict runway lengths for these conditions, and my simulator-based training didn't provide real-life experience at landings or takeoffs.
The day before the flight, the forecasts actually got worse, and I assembled my own group of individuals to question, advise, and educate me on this type of operation. It wasn't until the evening before the flight, when I made my fifth phone call — this one to the chief pilot of a local charter operation — that I made a decision. My skill level in the aircraft would not permit safe operations at the airports and runways needed for this flight. I called the employees who were planning to accompany me, and canceled the flight. However, I considered myself much wiser by employing the knowledge and opinion of others.
Yes, a pilot certificate is a license to learn. And, as the slogan of our sister publication, AOPA Flight Training magazine, reads, "A good pilot is always learning." Consider these and other examples that I am sure you can find in the pages of your own logbook, no matter how few or how many hours you may have. Working, flying, and talking with other pilots can provide us all with an extra measure of safety, considerably more knowledge, and much greater confidence to enjoy the individual freedom of flight.
