There is a place for high speed rail in this world. But in a nation the size of the US, with a population as affluent and mobile as ours is, air travel is a far, far more productive bet. Whether commercially or personally, it’s just a better deal all around. Let’s support it and believe in it, accordingly.
Politics for Pilots
The season of maintenance
Our cooling temperatures present us with a great gift. This is a perfect time to accomplish time-consuming tasks we don’t want to undergo during the height of the spring and summer flying seasons. Painting, upholstery work, engine rebuilds, avionics upgrades and such can all put an otherwise perfectly functional airplane on the ground for weeks, or longer. In June that lost time can be a major point of frustration. In January, not so much.
Wrestling with priorities
Everyone who flirts with the aeronautical arts and sciences gets a crash course in financial management, whether they want it or not. Bottom line: It takes money to fly. But make no mistake, every one of us has the capacity to earn, save, and spend the requisite amount to achieve our dreams of flight.
Advice to CFIs: Hush
CFIs often act as if they aren’t teaching if they aren’t talking. A more productive course of action might be to put greater emphasis on the pre-flight brief and the post-flight debrief. In between, allow the student the space to absorb the situation, analyze their own performance, and fix their own problems.
Fly the airplane
It’s a great flight. My first from the left seat in this particular airplane. There will be many more in the years to come. But I will remember on each flight, in any aircraft, no matter how much instrumentation is available or unavailable to me, keep the distractions to a minimum, enjoy the ride, and always remember to fly the airplane.
Make dollars make sense
It takes dollars to fly. As daunting as the costs may be, those dollars aren’t locked away in a secret vault, hidden from public view, reserved for only the wealthy few. They’re flowing through our wallets and checking accounts on a regular basis. Our challenge is to get focused enough to direct a portion of those dollars to the goal we most sincerely want to achieve.
Getting on with the Good Ol’ Boys
Make no mistake about it, there is a Good Ol’ Boys Club in your town. They’re in every town. But the door is open and the opportunity to participate as a member exists. All any of us has to do is lend a helping hand on projects that matter to us, and we’re in.
If there’s a soapbox, get on it
Yep, I’m up on my soapbox again. Whenever and wherever I can. Because there is at least the sliver of a chance that somebody, somewhere needs to hear the words coming out of my mouth. And I truly believe that something good might come from all this blabbering.
An airplane for everyone
You don’t have to be rolling in discretionary income to be an airplane owner. It doesn’t hurt, of course. However, it’s not a prerequisite. If you can afford a motorcycle, or a boat, or a vacation timeshare, you can probably afford to own an airplane. Or a percentage of an airplane which, in all honesty, might be the even better deal for most of us.