Are pilots really good or just lucky???

"Roger" wrote in message

To help her get set up with a rich guy to take care of her and the
kids? I'd say that's being thoughtful.


I was on a business trip a couple years back, on the bus to Tokyo-Narita
airport to catch a flight to Bangkok. I conveniently and rather
unsurprisingly ended up talking to the only other caucasian American on the
bus, a married father of two guy in his late 40s whose job involved constant
travel and occasional visits to places not renowned for their high standards
of safety. His wife was understandably less than thrilled with this, but, he
said, "I don't worry because if anything happens to me on one of these trips
she'll be collecting on so many policies she won't even have to think about
working ever again."

I think this is how men have to a large degree been programmed to think. We
are the providers for the family and our number one job is to make sure
everyone is fed, clothed, and put through college. Money is money whether
it's coming from our paycheck or an insurance policy. A mother's job on the
other hand is to mother, and that can't be done but in person. This has even
carried over into the present post-modern era of intentionally broken
families. Fail to pay your child support and the whole machinery of justice
might well mobilize against you. Do it often enough and they'll put your mug
in the local paper. But how many times have you heard of a judge putting a
father in jail for failing to show up to take the kids for the weekend?

-cwk.

Wow, I asked a short question a couple of weeks ago and the thread
is still going.

The funny and good thing about it is I started up my IFR training
again. My last flight was at the end of May. My first flight went
very good. Very little rust amazingly but afterwards my head was still
beyond overloaded. Did the 2nd flight 4 days after that. Did 4
approaches to near ATP standards and afterwards I could
form normal sentences and didn't appear braindead.
In fact, on the ILS, I had time to tell my CFII to stop playing
with the AM radio (ADF) while I was literally drumming my fingertips
on the dashboard.

Right now my CFII and I agreed that from now I fly only in IMC. At
worst, we make some trips in low IMC after I get the ticket. Hhe
also thinks I can finish this up my January. I think that is a little
optimistic but February definitely. I also might be going on some
XC IFR trips just to build up the 40 hours. On that behalf, THANKS
EVERYONE SO MUCH FOR ALL THE IFR DISCUSSION.

Gerald

Dan Luke wrote:
Seriously - I think we've now narrowed our range of disagreement to
what our passengers get out of joyrides (meaning flights going
nowhere
in particular made for no particular reason). I think they get as
much
out of it as we do, you seem not to agree.

I don't. No way the average person gets as much out of a flight I'm
piloting
as I do. If he did, he'd become a flying nut like me.

Not necessarily. I know at least one who loves to fly, but realizes he
doesn't have what it takes to be a pilot (IMO correctly). I know
others who feel they simply can't afford it (sometimes correctly). I
use a rule of thumb - if the person is asking me, and offering to pay
for gas (which I never accept, but the offer is usually made) then he
must get as much out of it as I do.

But that may be something on which we will have to agree to disagree -
figuring out what motivates people and how much isn't a science, it's
opinion.

Michael

Dan Luke wrote:
Seriously - I think we've now narrowed our range of disagreement to
what our passengers get out of joyrides (meaning flights going
nowhere
in particular made for no particular reason). I think they get as
much
out of it as we do, you seem not to agree.

I don't. No way the average person gets as much out of a flight I'm
piloting
as I do. If he did, he'd become a flying nut like me.

Not necessarily. I know at least one who loves to fly, but realizes he
doesn't have what it takes to be a pilot (IMO correctly). I know
others who feel they simply can't afford it (sometimes correctly). I
use a rule of thumb - if the person is asking me, and offering to pay
for gas (which I never accept, but the offer is usually made) then he
must get as much out of it as I do.

But that may be something on which we will have to agree to disagree -
figuring out what motivates people and how much isn't a science, it's
opinion.

Michael

On 7 Dec 2004 09:55:51 -0800, "Michael"
wrote:

I know at least one who loves to fly, but realizes he
doesn't have what it takes to be a pilot (IMO correctly).


What is tihs Top Gun? I've known someone blind in one eye who was a
good pilot, and various people who are scared of their own shadow who
are good pilots. I also know brash people who aren't affraid of
anything and may be an accident waiting to happen, but they know how
to control an airplane. There are even parapalegics who are pilot's!
Given so many different ways to excercise your priviledges, I just
don't understand what it means to "not have what it takes to be a
pilot." He may not fly from California to Maine, but I'm sure given
enough time he could learn to aviate effectively and perform emergency
procedures profficiently as a local pilot. Now more than ever with a
Sport license, maybe this is his ticket to get in the air.

z

I agree.

anyone who possesses the motor skills and the native intelligence to
safely dirve a car, probably has what it takes to fly a general
aviation airplane.

On the other hand, fear can cause strange things to happen, But if he
loves to fly, he probably "has what it takes".


On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 18:31:31 GMT, zatatime wrote:

On 7 Dec 2004 09:55:51 -0800, "Michael"
wrote:

I know at least one who loves to fly, but realizes he
doesn't have what it takes to be a pilot (IMO correctly).


What is tihs Top Gun? I've known someone blind in one eye who was a
good pilot, and various people who are scared of their own shadow who
are good pilots. I also know brash people who aren't affraid of
anything and may be an accident waiting to happen, but they know how
to control an airplane. There are even parapalegics who are pilot's!
Given so many different ways to excercise your priviledges, I just
don't understand what it means to "not have what it takes to be a
pilot." He may not fly from California to Maine, but I'm sure given
enough time he could learn to aviate effectively and perform emergency
procedures profficiently as a local pilot. Now more than ever with a
Sport license, maybe this is his ticket to get in the air.

z

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 18:31:31 GMT, zatatime wrote:

On 7 Dec 2004 09:55:51 -0800, "Michael"
wrote:

I know at least one who loves to fly, but realizes he
doesn't have what it takes to be a pilot (IMO correctly).


What is tihs Top Gun? I've known someone blind in one eye who was a
good pilot, and various people who are scared of their own shadow who
are good pilots.

After this many years I can truly say I've met a lot of people who
would never, or could never become pilots. I've seen pilots lose
their judgmental capability, but they thought they were doing fine.
One guy ran out of gas three times and had off airport landings in
just a couple of months. Totaled the airplane on the third one.

I've seen students who just could not multitask enough to safely fly
an airplane *except* when every thing went right. Throw in an
emergency and they'd either panic or just give up.

I saw one student get too low on final, give it too much gas, over
corrected for that and turned the 150 into a lawn dart. Put shoulders
in the wings at the struts. Now that's not much of an indicator by
itself. Every one makes mistakes. He went on to get his PPL and did
well. However, one day less than a year later, he did pretty much the
same thing with a 172. He quite flying.


I also know brash people who aren't affraid of
anything and may be an accident waiting to happen, but they know how
to control an airplane.

And people like that should not be let near an airplane.

There are even parapalegics who are pilot's!
Certainly and the few I do know have great judgmental ability.


Knowing how to control an airplane does not make a pilot.
Being able to handle the airplane and yourself in adverse conditions,
while making decisions under pressure does.

Given so many different ways to excercise your priviledges, I just
don't understand what it means to "not have what it takes to be a
pilot."

If you stick around long enough you will. :-))

He may not fly from California to Maine, but I'm sure given
enough time he could learn to aviate effectively and perform emergency
procedures profficiently as a local pilot.

Learning the procedures is the easy part. When the *proper* responses
become automatic you are well on the way.

Now more than ever with a
Sport license, maybe this is his ticket to get in the air.

I think the Sport Pilot is a good idea, but there is a reason they
limit the seating capacity to two and the airspeed as well as weight.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com


z

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 06:34:28 GMT, "C Kingsbury"
wrote:


"Roger" wrote in message

To help her get set up with a rich guy to take care of her and the
kids? I'd say that's being thoughtful.


I was on a business trip a couple years back, on the bus to Tokyo-Narita
airport to catch a flight to Bangkok. I conveniently and rather

My Daughter's hotel was only a bit over a 100 yards from the bomb that
went off in Bali. She said it knocked the plaster off the ceiling
which then fell on them. After taking a look at the hole in the
street the next day, the condition of their hotel, they decided to
stay elsewhere.

snip

Roger

Roger

What is tihs Top Gun? I've known someone blind in one eye who was a
good pilot, and various people who are scared of their own shadow who
are good pilots.

Someone who is not prepared to be solely responsible for his fate, and
to make quick correct decisions under pressure should not be a pilot.

The particular situation was this. We were on final. It was night and
mist was setting in reducing visibility (hours ahead of the forecast -
horoscopes with numbers) but it was OK beacuse in another minute we
would be on the ground and rolling. Part of the runway was shut down
but 2200 ft was still remaining to use - more than enough for a
Tomahawk. At 500 ft I reached for the flap lever and it would not
move. ****! Now what?

Go around and sort it out, since the fog probably wouldn't roll in
during the 5-10 minutes that might take? Land anyway, because 2200 ft
was probably still plenty for a no-flap landing in a Tommy?

It's not articularly a big deal, though it might seem that way to a
pilot who has just over 100 hours and can count his in-type hours on
his fingers. What's the correct decision?

You can make an argument in favor of either answer. In retrospect
either would have worked. I had a hell of a time finding the airport
in the lit-up suburbia (even to the point of needing a RADAR vector)
and didn't want to risk losing sight of the airport on the go-around,
so I opted to land. 2200 ft was plenty. The other way would likely
have worked too - it took another 30 minutes at least before the vis
dropped below VFR, and I could always have gotten another vector.

It was no big deal.

After the flight, my passenger asked me what the "****!" was about, and
I explained it to him. Right there and then he decided that he wasn't
interested in being pilot in command. Ever. At first I couldn't
understand why, but then I started paying attention to his driving. He
doesn't do well with making decisions and sticking to them.

For example, you're pulling out onto a road. You need to pick a space
in traffic you can merge into. That requires mostly looking upstream.
Once the decision is made and you move out into the road, it's really
too late to change your mind. You move briskly and look downstream,
the direction you're going. He moves slowly and keeps looking upstream
when he can. He has been rear-ended a couple of times. Not his fault
of course.

Downthread, someone mentioned that anyone who can safely drive a car
can learn to safely pilot an airplane. I agree. But this guy can't
safely drive a car either - and if you spend much time on the road, you
quickly realize he isn't unique.

Michael