Learning Experiences

Motivation By Implication

Have you ever had the impression that life abounds with paradoxes and irony? For example, if I don't want it to rain, I bring my umbrella. I may have to look a little silly carrying it around, but either way, I won't get wet. No, I don't intend to extol the virtues of dubious superstition. Rather, I want to pass along a little wisdom pertaining, naturally, to flying.

Some years ago, a coworker invited me to a picnic. It so happened that, while he wasn't a pilot, two other guests, Jane and Brian Mee, were. As my wife and I talked to this couple, I discovered that their credentials were considerably more impressive than my own. Then again, that wasn't too surprising-I had passed my private pilot checkride just one week before. The self-satisfied glow had scarcely faded, though, and I was just beginning to get the swagger under control. Now, some 10 years later, I remember what happened next as if it were yesterday. I had a mouthful of sandwich when my wife proudly announced my achievement. That's when Jane Mee looked at me across the table and spoke those fateful words: "You're as good now as you'll ever be."

I responded to her remark with my most malevolent stare. No doubt that wasn't the response she expected. I share this because that little exchange made me realize how implication alone can motivate - and how that benign observation terrified me. As good as I'll ever be? Yikes! How bad might I be in another year? Another 10 years? I could not possibly be as good as I could ever hope to be, and I immediately began my quest to prove her wrong.

Since that conversation, I have flown 1,000 or so hours, and fully half of it is dual because I believe that's what it takes to make sure I keep getting better. Every time a pilot takes to the air, he or she has to decide: Am I going to fly one hour for the thousandth time, or am I going to fly my thousandth hour? The three times a month I end up flying - after losing the aircraft to maintenance and being forced to cancel because of weather, sick kids, and other higher-priority pre-emptions - is not enough to keep the bad habits at bay. So what do I do? I fly with instructors - a lot. Forget the three hours of dual instruction that the Wings program requires to replace a flight review. Try 20, 30, or 40 hours of dual instruction a year. And that's a bare minimum when I'm not working on a new rating.

When I can't fly, I read about flying, and I think about flying. And then I find still more ways to keep myself involved in flying. In 1990, I joined the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). I have long since learned that in flying, as in life, the best way to get something is to give something. That's one reason I volunteer with the CAP. All of the hoops one has to jump through for the CAP in terms of recurrent training and proficiency make the volunteer a better pilot. (Not to mention the fact that you have the chance to help others.)

I also find fun and different ways to learn more about every aspect of aviation. I have visited the altitude chamber at Andrews Air Force Base twice. What better way to learn what hypoxia can do to the human body, and more specifically what your own body's symptoms are, than to experience it firsthand in a safe environment?

I've also taken several hours of aerobatics lessons with a local instructor in his Super Decathlon. I've taken a spin training course. I've flown ultralights. I got my glider rating - a great way to improve your engine-out state of mind and nail that approach site picture. I went for a rotary-wing rating to see how the other half lives. Then I taught my feet the rudder dance with a tailwheel signoff in a Piper Cub - now that's flying! Oh, and I got the best present a pilot can give himself - an instrument rating. But that's just me. The list of options and adventures goes on and on; all you have to do is choose.

Of course, I never saw Jane or Brian Mee again. Still, I think about them. I've always wanted to check back with Jane and let her know that I remembered what she said. And now, a little older and a few checkrides wiser, I am a better pilot. I'd also like to tell Jane that she taught me a little motivational secret - one that I am going to use on the next newly minted pilot I meet. It worked for me.