"Dennis Johnson" wrote in
:

If a person is sitting in front of an instrument panel manipulating
controls whose performance is based on aerodynamic principles, that's
flying. It might be flying a simulator, but it's still flying.

By your definition, birds do something other than fly.

Flying means being carried aloft. That's how Webster sees it.

Piloting may include simulators, but flying does not.

I think it's in our best interest to welcome anyone to this newsgroup
who is interested in aviation. Personally, I'm impressed with
Mxsmanic's commitment to mastering instrument procedures. I'll bet he
could put many of us to shame.

Give the guy a break.

Manic's problem has nothing to do with flying, knowledge, or procedures.
It has everything to do with respect and attitude.

He is like a man born sightless who would scorn artists in their own
gallery because they use terms like "warm colors" and "cool colors". He
insists that colors cannot express temperature because he cannot feel any
more warmth when he touches red and yellow than when he touches blue.

He may make accurate technical statements. But, like the blind man, his
appreciation of the full experience is limited. We all know that if he had
just a momentary glimpse of the rainbow he would "get it". And for a brief
period, many of us try to help him cure his blindness. We try to describe
the colors blue and red and yellow, the feelings and emotions that are
evoked when we look at a Stained-Glass Window by Chagall, a Sunflower by
Van Gogh, or a Soup Can by Warhol. We hope that he will open his eyes, and
see, and begin to understand.

But instead he just tells us that we are wrong - that sight has nothing to
do with temperature, and he doesn't need it or want it. He says we're just
idiot artists because we can't explain blue and red and yellow to him. They
must not exist because he doesn't get it.

He will never appreciate art as anything more than the texture of ink
saturated on paper.

He is lost, and all he really has to do is open his eyes.

What a shame.