Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:


I think a lot of us who come up with the "aerobatics bug" start out
even without realizing it in some cases that knowing how to fly acro
and doing it sets us apart from the "average" pilot. It's a falsely
conceived premise at best that some actually never shed .
Those who don't are usually the ones who end up dead. It's THAT
simple!


I'm a bit confused as to what you mean here, unless it's that some
aerobatic pilots have notions about ourselves above our station.


It's simple really. Pilots exist for the most part as a specialized
group. Even loners are part of the "group"

By definition, flying is an acquired skill obtained through knowledge
and experience. The "group" recognizes those who can do things with an
airplane others in the group can't do. It's a natural pecking order
where the ability to perform aerobatics rates highly among many in the
group. This isn't to say that aerobatic pilots are better than others in
the group, but rather that the ability to perform aerobatics and fly
certain aircraft can be a "respected position" in the flying community.
Knowing this is practically unavoidable if one exists in the flying
community as a pilot.
It's quite natural therefore, (right or wrong), that SOME pilots
acquiring aerobatic skills tend toward envisioning themselves as being
"a step up" in the pecking order. If not recognized by an individual
pilot when and if this happens for it's potential toward the development
of false confidence, the situation can be a real problem for some
individuals.
The trick of course is for the acrobatically competent pilot to
recognize that part of the price for that "step up" in the pecking order
is a dual responsibility to accept aerobatics and the dangers associated
with them with the respect they are due and as well make every attempt
to instill that same respect in other pilots.

This is nothing more really, than a pedantic way of saying that pilots
acquiring aerobatic skills need to acquire aerobatic responsibility as
well. The two are inseparable and the first without the latter will kill
you dead. The residual of all this is that without responsibility, what
you do can influence someone else and possibly kill them dead as well.


The pilots who make it all the way through a career in display flying
are worth watching as they have common behavior and habit patterns
worth emulating for those considering entering this venue.

Most have common traits that are recognizable to even the untrained
eye. The pilots who last in the display acro business develop early
on, an attitude of respect for the venue that borders on a kind of
fanaticism. These are the pilots who, when tempted to do a roll on
takeoff by the local airport crowd on a Sunday morning as they get
ready to go cross country to do an air show somewhere, simply smile
and respectfully decline. It's not the place....and it's not the time.
They realize that there's a self imposed "ritual" they have to go
through with themselves before executing aerobatics at low altitude
and doing low acro without this "mental tuning up " can spell real
trouble. This is why, as the number one rule I passed on to all acro
the acro pilots, especially display pilots, who got close enough to me
to hear my voice I always stressed;
"Never.....EVER....do anything with an airplane that someone asks you
to do unless you yourself are mentally and physically prepared to do
it....AND it's YOUR CALL!!"


Hm, yes. I never thought this through before, but it rings true. I'm
never shy about a little showing off and I think most pilots are like
that, but I never liked being cajoled into doing something but I'm
uncertain as to whether that was because I have some sort of innate
wisdom or because I'm an anarchist at heart.

We'll have to share a few Jack Daniels' sometime and discuss this in
more depth
:-)

This sounds simple enough, but you would be absolutely amazed how easy
it is to slip into doing something with an airplane because this
person or that one is watching.
Ego and complacency are high on the list of potential killers for
aerobatic pilots.
Lord only knows what made a pilot of Ed's caliber weaken his
horizontal stabilizer to match the other weakened side, then go fly
hard maneuvers for the camera.

Yeah, it's a funny thing about ego. Without a sizable dose you're almost
as much of a menace in any kind of high performance flying as the guy
who has too much. My own experience has been a roller coaster of over and
under confidence of decreasing intensity throughout as I found my level
of competence and it's corresponding level of confidence. These ups and
downs never stopped, only decreased in amplitude and, I believe, have led
to a habit of constant self appraisal that has served me well in just
about any flying discipline. IOW, experience has eventually won out but I
was lucky to have acquired it!

This is a perfectly normal process. I went through it as well.
(Remember, I probably own the most widely publicized buzz job in
aviation history :-)
The trick is to recognize it early on and control it which I'm sure both
of us managed to do.



What is completely puzzling to me and always will remain a puzzle to
me is that most any inexperienced pilot, even a student , if
asked whether THEY would have done what Ed did that day, and flown
that airplane on that day, at that time, for that purpose, would
probably instinctively say that they wouldn't have done it.


Well, I suppose there comes a point where your knowledge allows you to
see through certain practices that are laid down for the simple minded
that can be reasonably circumvented. Problem is, a little knowledge is a
dangerous thing in a case like this. It's not like flying an airplane
with a flat battery or something like that.

As it turned out, this was unfortunately true.


in the film about your Buddy, Douglas Bader, he's credited with
repeating often something his instructor told him and that was "rules
are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools".
Trick is to live long enough to become a wise man..

Bertie


Douglas did have a way with words. Once to a group of paraplegic
children he visited in a hospital;

“Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can't do this or that.
That's nonsense. Make up your mind you'll never use crutches or a stick,
then have a go at everything. Go to school, join in all the games you
can. Go anywhere you want to. But never, never let them persuade you
that things are too difficult or impossible.”

Ya gotta love the guy!! :-))

--
Dudley Henriques