Flying Life: One Piece of Advice
What would yours be?
Through the years, I have become fascinated with the idea that every pilot has one important piece of information to pass on. If each of us could somehow take all our aviation experience and pare it down to the most important lesson we have learned, then maybe future pilot generations wouldn’t have to repeat the same mistakes. So, when I speak with experienced pilots, people who have been around the aviation block, I find it entertaining to surprise them with a question: “If you could share one piece of advice about aviation, what would it be?”
Our regional FAA Safety Team manager was retiring and came to give one last seminar at my home airport of Olive Branch, Mississippi. As I was introducing him to the audience of 50 or so pilots, I couldn’t resist asking him my question. After giving me the side eye for putting him on the spot, he replied thoughtfully, “Wind your watch.” He went on to explain that the worst possible thing we can do in an aircraft is to make a rash decision because an equipment malfunction is making us uncomfortable. Those decisions usually lead to even more undesirable consequences. Granted, I’m too young to have ever owned a watch that I had to wind, but the message still hit home—take a second or two, just to think, before you flip any switches.
At 39,000 feet, somewhere on a long flight between Memphis and New York, I asked my co-pilot—a retired Delta Air Lines captain turned Beechjet corporate pilot—the same question. He responded with some sage advice: “Always have a backup to your backup.” In other words, don’t ever put yourself in a position where weather or minimum fuel could limit your options. Always have an escape route in case things don’t go as planned.
People who love what they do tend to be really good at it. So, find a way to keep your aviation spark alive.When I became a designated examiner two years ago, I found myself wondering what will my one thing be? What piece of advice could I give that will make safer these pilots who pass through my hands? I think I have finally found the answer. It came from one of my commercial pilot applicants when I handed him his new certificate and asked what his next step was going to be. Teaching? Airlines? His answer made me smile: “I don’t care as long as they let me fly airplanes.”
At some point, most of us have that same attitude—that flying, for any reason, is fun. Because we enjoy it so much, we find excuses to do it often. So our skills continue to improve, and we become better pilots just by doing what we love. Somewhere along the way, though, when it becomes too much work, or too expensive, or too routine, we lose the passion that we had as new pilots. We stop hanging out for hangar chat after flights. We no longer attend safety seminars just to learn something new. We stop reading about and studying airplanes. In short, we stop being students of our craft. Apathy is never a good thing, but especially not in aviation, where it makes us less likely to stay proficient.
So here it is, my one piece of aviation advice: Don’t stop having fun. While safety and fun seem to be opposing values, I think in aviation, one doesn’t often exist without the other. People who love what they do tend to be really good at it. So, find a way to keep your aviation spark alive, whether that’s attending fly-ins or airshows, or adding a seaplane rating, or going for that $100 hamburger. Try to remember what it is you enjoyed about aviation in the beginning. Maybe, like me, it is the fun-loving people who attracted you. Or perhaps it’s the fact that aviation is still a relatively new science, one filled with endless possibilities for innovation.
Whatever it is—that thing that you love about flying—hold onto it, because it may be the very thing that keeps you safe.
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