After more than a decade of working with individuals and groups to help establish and manage flying clubs, I’ve bumped into more than my share of airport managers who are less than accommodating when approached with the idea of housing a flying club.
When ego trumps the FAA
It is the truly rare bird who sets out to cause mayhem. The vast majority of poor habits and shockingly bad decision-making come from plain old myopia. The offenders simply don’t think past the limits of their own cockpit. Consideration for others is just not part of their reality.
But I had the right of way…I think
There is a hard-core belief among the general population that if we have the right of way we can proceed with whatever it is we’re doing. Everyone else will make way for us.
How am I doing coach?
Imagine the reaction if an NFL player said, “I’m good coach. I don’t need to practice this week.” That attitude wouldn’t fly in the big leagues. It shouldn’t fly at the airport either.
Share the joy when you can
After many years, so many annual inspections, multiple flight reviews, and an untold number of weather delays, it is possible to become slightly jaded about the wonder of aviation. But I suspect you’ll find, as I have, that introducing non-pilots who have a fresh set of eyes to even the most benign aeronautical experience can have great effect.
The profound value of the basics
Who among us hasn’t had a flight instructor in the right seat repeating the words, “right rudder” over and over again? I heard that refrain quite frequently when I was a new student pilot. I nearly used the phrase to its ultimate limit when I was the CFI in the right seat. And I will acknowledge with a bit of humility that once, just once a CFI giving me a flight review threw that term out for me to consider when I’d lost focus for a moment.
For the love of aeronautical surf n’ turf
Like many pilots who have had the opportunity to fly a wide assortment of airplanes, I’m occasionally asked, “what’s your favorite airplane?”
In celebration of the gift of lift
It’s magic. It’s science. It’s amazing. And even if we don’t understand exactly how it works, we can still take the controls and successfully guide an airplane into the sky to experience the wonder of flight for ourselves.
Satisfaction deferred is still satisfying
There is a piece of me that is very glad I maintained my role in the right seat as a CFI. The success of my students feels like a success for me, too. And that’s a pretty darned good feeling.