Having been present at her first day in an aircraft hangar and being trusted to serve as her first CFI for that familiarization flight, it’s been my honor to watch this girl grow from a dreamer to a doer.
Draw a line and respect it
In extreme cases I can lose as much as 50% of my field of vision. That’s not good for collision avoidance. It might make it impossible for me to read a gauge or change to a specific radio frequency. In short, it puts me in an unsafe condition. And that’s enough for me to pull the plug on a career that I’ve loved so deeply for all these years.
The future can surprise us
Fifty years of technological advancement will result in a world you and I won’t recognize. Our children and grandchildren will believe that relocating to Mars is a viable option. They’ll ride in autonomous cars to a place where an autonomous aircraft will transport them to the launch facility — a scenario we could easily disregard as being ridiculous.
Customer service is a verb
Finding success isn’t all that complicated, especially in a service-oriented industry. It’s not easy, but the path to success isn’t well hidden. It’s right out in plain sight. Start with a smile and a willingness to help. Run with that. Profits will follow.
Red light, green light, white light
You can request unique training opportunities from ATC. Things like light gun signals. If you’re a CFI you should expose your students in a controlled environment. If you’re an experienced pilot on your flight review, ask for something challenging. It might just make your life a whole lot more comfortable later on…when you least expect it.
Mother Nature always wins
There are remedies for virtually all the obstacles we are likely to encounter in flight and in life. The real variable is whether we will take the precautions necessary to be safe or not. Too many of us play fast and loose with the risks. The resulting accidents present general aviation in a poor light to those who stand on the outside looking in. They see us as dangerous and, frankly, some of us are.
The miracle machine that binds us
The Cub represents the essence of flight and nothing more. A cluster of welded steel tubes wrapped in a blanket of Grade A cotton, powered by Continental, Lycoming, or Franklin engines producing as many as 65 hp. The Cub sprung from the imaginations and sweat of men and women who did something amazing. They invented, then perfected, a flying machine that has never been equaled.
Where general aviation meets the stars
A general aviation enthusiast designed a rocket to go to space. A general aviation enthusiast piloted that vehicle up and out of the atmosphere. And a general aviation enthusiast flew that spaceship back to earth, landing on the runway at a general aviation airport. The same airport where he’d parked his car after driving to work that morning.
The thrill that keeps on thrilling
What I didn’t know 36 years ago when I took to the skies for the first time is that I would still get a thrill from seeing others succeed in their own attempts to fly. Whether I sign them off myself, or simply stand on the periphery and cheer them on, each of these individuals impresses me. Their flights take me back in time to my own first attempts.