With approximately 18% of the pilot population holding a CFI ticket, it would seem obvious that scheduling a flight with a CFI would be easy. It should be a cake walk. So why isn’t it?
It’s always a good time to be proud
There is an old joke that virtually every pilot has heard and agreed with immediately. “How do you know there’s a pilot at your party? They’ll tell you.”
What will they think of next?
The communication systems available to us today are amazing. We can listen to music via Bluetooth through our noise cancelling headsets, call home to let our family know we’re just half an hour out, and monitor two ATC frequencies simultaneously. But does that make us better pilots?
Community spirit to the rescue
It has been said that no man is an island. Clearly, that is true. General aviation is, indeed, a community in the best sense of the term. We care for each other. We go to bat for people we don’t even know, just because we see a glimmer of ourselves in them.
The Other Guy Syndrome
Believing a bad thing will happen to the other guy, but not to us, is folly. The bad thing is ever present. It occurs because of insufficient planning, rushed procedures, ignoring warning signs, or just plain laziness. Worst of all, it can happen to any of us — including you and me.
Carb heat for better or worse
Carburetor heat is a gift from the engineers who created it. Without carb heat I would have disappeared into the woodlands of New England, or Florida, or somewhere in between long ago. That simple knob on the panel of my Cessna has revived my ailing engine on more than one occasion.
Taking the zealous perspective
Of all the amazing, memorable, soul-enriching experiences I’ve had in the general aviation industry, none has come close to the satisfaction I have gotten from helping someone get started. Those smiling faces fill my memory and tug at my heartstrings.
We don’t know what we don’t know
If we can’t or won’t acknowledge our own ignorance, we can’t learn. And since we can all be sure we truly don’t know what we don’t know, we can proudly stand up and say, “I know a lot, but I’m still learning.”
The conflict within
After canceling a flight I’d planned due to weather, a friend commented to me as I tucked my airplane back into the hangar, “A lot of pilots have been buried on a sunny day because they flew when they shouldn’t have.”