The United States has about 666,500 active pilots out of a population of roughly 210 million people 18 years and older. That means less than 1% of adults are active pilots.
If you are an active pilot, you are pretty special stuff. It means you have a set of skills that few others have.
To attain a pilot’s certificate, you have to go through ground school, flight training with a flight instructor, solo flight, cross-country flight, night flight, maneuvers of all sorts, and be tested at each stage. Finally, the ultimate test is the check ride with an FAA Designated Examiner.
None of this is inexpensive and it all takes time. So what’s the attraction?
For some it is the beginning of a career that leads to flying for a living.
For me, I fly for fun. Friends accuse me of being “all ate up with flying,” to which I firmly reply guilty.
When I fly my plane, I am the Pilot in Command of that flight, which means I get to choose what the plane does next.
As an experienced pilot, I can make my plane do about any reasonable thing I want by making control inputs. It all starts with forming a mental picture of what I want the plane to do next. If I visualize a 90° turn to the left at 30° bank while maintaining my current altitude, I use appropriate control inputs to make the plane do that.
I already know what it feels like and sounds like and looks like to make such a turn, so when the plane actually makes the turn, I get a little boost of confidence and pleasure in seeing that I can make the plane perform as I direct. Each maneuver becomes a little pleasure — a sweet success. That’s fun.
Flying is fun because you see it, feel it, and hear it while you are doing it — it’s all very sensual. The eyes see, the ears hear, and you feel the movement in the seat of your pants. Your hands feel the stick or yoke, the throttle, and other controls.
Whenever possible, I fly low and slow. I relish looking at the farmers’ fields with their neatly squared off patches of color.
You never realize how many bodies of water are nearby until flying in a small plane. Rivers, lakes, ponds and creeks are all there to see when you fly low.
The highways look like so many strings of spaghetti noodles scattered on the ground. Little towns have their main streets and water towers proudly proclaiming the name of their high school teams. Barns, buildings, homes, and all manner of man-made structures dot the landscape.
Trees and vegetation during the spring and summer are many shades of green. In the fall, Mother Nature turns the scene to 50 shades of blazing yellow, orange, gold, and red.
Railroad tracks and power transmission lines crisscross the countryside. Cars and trucks look like toys, but when you go higher they look like so many ants. Hills and valleys flatten out and are less visible the higher you go.
When I do fly high and fast, about the only thing I remember afterwards is staring at the gauges and trying not to fall asleep. Flying slow also prolongs the flight, which prolongs the fun — and the little pleasures.
These are a few of the reasons why I believe learning to fly is well worth the time and money. There are many more, all resulting in little pleasures. I really enjoy being one of the “special few” who fly.
Thanks for the wonderful article and observations! The “day job” is in a jet but to experience the fun and joy of real flying, I go up in the Champ; low and slow and totally connected with every air current. As pilots, we are truly blessed and yes, we seldom appreciate this enough with full awareness and gratitude; thanks for the wake-up call 🙂
After flying for 48 years, you learn 10 times more than just using some controls.
You experience every emotion in life, from fear to elation. Planning and control of emotion transfers to ordinary life. Best accomplishment a person can have.
I have often thought that when one does not need to be somewhere for business the old Mooney slogan is wrong. Al Mooney was to have said “life is short,fly fast”. A Mooney is most definitely fast and life does end up being shorter than we would wish.With that in mind and the simple joy of being in the sky it is perhaps more appropriately said as “life is short,fly slow!”
While I agree that flying IS expensive , I disagree that one must be rich to fly. I am by no means rich but am able to go periodically to do that which I love . I will agree that if the expense wasnt so high then I would do a lot MORE of it .
It’s sad that General Aviation has priced itself out of reach for most inspiring aviators. It’s no secret why GA is struggling, and less than 1% of the population are licensed pilots. Like most things these days, only the wealthy are able to experience it fully.
Between 1970 and 2018 the share of aggregate income going to middle-class households fell from 62% to 43%. It’s not surprising that fewer people can afford the luxury of flying a private airplane today.
There are many ways to keep costs affordable for a middle class pilot. A used Cessna or Piper costs far less than new mid-sized SUV and costs about the same to maintain.
gbigs,
I agree. an old Cessna 172 can ‘cheap to keep’ ,especially if it is ‘co-owned’ by 3 or 4 friends.
We share the fixed costs- hangar, insurance, annual. We put the aircraft back in the hangar with full tanks, and $15 per hour covers a lot of our repairs and parts.
Many start to learn to fly, few finish and get certificated. Fewer still own and fly. Fewer still fly more than 100 hours a year. Flying is fun but it is also expensive and inherently dangerous. If you don’t do it for pay, you are doing it for fun. Either way, getting into and staying in the sky requires staying healthy, staying current and staying motivated. Hence, VERY few are engaged in the sport.
“I already know what it feels like and sounds like and looks like to make such a turn, so when the plane actually makes the turn, I get a little boost of confidence and pleasure in seeing that I can make the plane perform as I direct. Each maneuver becomes a little pleasure — a sweet success. That’s fun.”
There was a point in my private pilot training where all of a sudden the plane became predictable, and it would do what I asked of it. Everything just clicked and I realized I was *flying a plane*.
It’s too bad so many people these days are totally preoccupied (usually staring at their phones) to allow themselves to perceive the little joys as life go by. There it goes, right in front of their down-turned eyes, the opportunity is missed forever, then life is over. It truly is the ultimate tragedy, especially so for young people.
Very well said. One song that talks about this is “Noise” by Kenny Chesney.