Politics for Pilots

This quiet interval takes me back to memories of my old friend, now gone, Hiram Mann. It makes me think of a place where he faced significant hardship, but came to experience profound pride. 

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.