jcarlyle wrote:

The trouble is that this mode of learning is extremely hard on low time
pilots like myself. Of course we get the fundamentals from our
instructors and our textbooks, plus more from reading accident reports
and anecdotes and taking periodic rides with an instructor, but I think
there's so much more that we neophytes could learn from those who
have paid their dues in the cockpit.

I don't know of any shortcuts, John. The head and the hands generally
learn together, at least in my case. Though I can describe someone I
want you to meet, and introduce her, you can't really get to know each
other until I leave the two of you alone.

Glider clubs always need instructors. You'd be in the air a lot, you
think harder about things when you try to teach them, and you'd learn
there are more ways than you might have expected to approach a problem
-- and make it even worse. You'll also learn that the student often has
something to teach you, sometimes even about flying the aircraft.


Do you have any thoughts on how we newbies might lower this barrier,
Jack? My idea involves plying you with your favorite beverage in a low
key setting....

Insight can't be bought, but ply me with assembly, a free tow, and
disassembly, and you'll find out that I can be had.


I wasn't even able to get my own Dad, who flew for the Navy in WWII,
to give me the benefit of his experience by talking about what he'd
learned.

Using an airplane as a weapon is more than just flying one aggressively.
He probably hoped you'd have no need of the knowledge, or perhaps he
thought that what he'd learned couldn't be translated. That's not rare.


Jack