Worried about talking on the radio

[digits]

Today's pilots are so infantile. They need someone to tell them what they need to learn,
and then they need someone to spoon-feed them a course like babies.

No one ever told me what I fucking needed to learn, and I was always self-taught.

Thinking about this, I taught myself:

1) tailwheel flying (I watched Dad, and he screamed at me for a little bit - I had no brakes on my side)
2) instrument rating (read a book, self-taught, corp pilot signed off the flight test)
3) my TCA ATPL and FAA ATP (read a book for each one)
4) aerobatics. Got some spin recovery training in California. Self-taught solo.
5) formation flying (never flew in same airplane as Dad. Self-taught solo)
6) formation aerobatics (asked everywhere for help, none given. Self-taught solo)
7) low altitude aerobatics. No one teaches this. No one. Self-taught solo
8) low altitude formation aerobatics. Hahahahahahahahaahahahahahahah.
9) inverted (-ve G) formation & formation aerobatics. Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

Plus many, many weird self-checkouts on all sorts of bizarre types. Again, no dual, ever
which really pissed me off. Spent decades listening to war stories about the Beech 18
for example, and when one showed up at the airport, all those blowhard hero pilots
scattered like cockroaches and guess who had to teach themselves to fly a Beech18?


Figure out what you need to
learn - no one will tell you - and then teach yourself that material, because no one else
will.

This is called being an "adult".

No, it's being called 'being lucky to grow up in an aviation family that enabled you to do such things, while not realizing the world has changed and what you previously did is simply unachievable for 99% of all people and pilots'.

For one, you're lucky you grew up in a country or continent that allows those things. The majority of pilots flying today, are not legally allowed to do the first 4 items on that list without -sometimes excessive- instruction. That's a legal requirement outside of North America.

Then you need to be able to find an airplane. Forget about renting, unless you want to spend another fortune on instructors and checkouts. Once you find a plane, insurance will likely throw another wrench in those plans.

It's not that new pilots need or want to be spoon fed a course, it's that 'your generation' mandated that new pilots now need to be spoon fed a course.

[Colonel]

Hold on a second.

Sure, my Dad was a pilot. That’s the case for hundreds of thousands of Canadians since WWII. That sure as fuck doesn’t make me anything special.

Rob Holland is a better pilot than any Canadian I know of, and he didn’t come from an aviation family. He just works harder at it than you do.

Lastly, do you recognize the hilarious irony of trying to hang onerous regulatory requirements on ME? I have fought those people for decades. They stole my property and I can’t live in Canada any more.

Your revisionism is breathtaking, dude.

[digits]

Lastly, do you recognize the hilarious irony of trying to hang onerous regulatory requirements on ME?

Not at all, but since you're complaining about 'today's pilots', I just want to point out that the older pilots (your generation) is the one that created the rules that 'today's pilots' have to follow.

[Colonel]

It ain't the rules that's the problem. It's the lack of initiative and missing work ethic.

Once again, I will say that Rob Holland didn't get to be the best pilot by following rules
and receiving more dual from FTU instructors than any other pilot.

Rob figured out what he needed to do, and how to do it. He works harder than anyone else.
He didn't come from an aviation family, so you can't say that he had an unfair advantage.

If people spent a little less time making excuses, and more time working hard, they would
probably be more successful.

You probably never heard of BD Maule, for example. He bought a book. Built an airplane
and taught himself how to fly it. Can you imagine today's princesses doing that?

[digits]

You probably never heard of BD Maule, for example. He bought a book. Built an airplane
and taught himself how to fly it. Can you imagine today's princesses doing that?

No, because that would be illegal today. Which is exactly the point I'm making.

[digits]

Achievements in aviation have changed from 'what do I think I can do' to 'what do other people think I can do'

You're not going to solo an airplane when you think you're ready, you'll solo when your instructor thinks you're ready.
You won't get your license when you think you can fly, you'll get it when your examiner thinks you can fly.
You won't be able to fly IFR when you think you're capable, but when an examiner think you're capable.
You won't be able to jump in a new airplane type when you think you're ready, but when the insurance company thinks you're ready.

[Colonel]

Digits: I don’t want to live in your world

[digits]

Digits: I don’t want to live in your world

But you are...

[Colonel]

I suspect there are many cohort differences between us…

For example, insurance companies love me.

But I have learned that aviation is many different things to many different people.

I have had a strange and wonderful aviation career and I live in a strange and wonderful place with no snow or ice or bugs. In February I ride my motorcycle to the airport and fly aerobatics in the warm sunshine. 99% of the time the sky is a brilliant blue with no clouds. There are probably better places to fly but I’ve never heard of one.

I don’t live in your world. I don’t even own a car, dude. I don’t need one.

[Squaretail]

It's the lack of initiative and missing work ethic.

I don't think its that, its that people don't know how to prioritize, which ultimately is the failing pilots have with gizmos and radios. After all, I don't think we can call Bill a lazy dude. He strikes me as someone who is a hard worker. Its that if being a good pilot is his objective, then the work isn't necessarily in the right place for that objective. And that's ok, not all pilots need to be Rob Hollands. But if they want to be better pilots, then they still need to apply the effort they do have for the task correctly. I mean I think its good that Bill has the impulse to be better at something to improve his pilot ability, but instead of say listening to the radio, I'd advise him to study the AFM or POH or Maintenance Manual. Or better yet, just make more time to fly.

Lots of pilots are bad for the same reason why lots of people are bad at things they do. They lack the ability to prioritize. I mean if one was to boil down the priorities of learning to fly the list in order should look like this:

1. Flying the airplane.
2. Systems knowledge
3. Navigation.
4. Weather
5. Regulation
6. Communication.

If you're not good at aviating (the whole package) then you should probably make sure the basics are improved before you start further on. This is why the little airplane at a secluded grass runway should be the starting point. Everything to start should be about flying the plane, knowing how the plane works (#2) only as much to facilitate flying (#1).

New pilots don't know this. All those items look like they are equally important. Lots of "Experienced" pilots don't know this either, or if they do, try to make it sound as convoluted as possible to make the job of being a pilot seem as difficult as possible. I don't envy new pilots, with each successive generation of new pilots (young and old) the bullshit is increasing exponentially that they have to wade against the flow of. If anything, new technology has enabled more idiots to survive to pass on more stupidity.

You probably never heard of BD Maule, for example. He bought a book. Built an airplane
and taught himself how to fly it. Can you imagine today's princesses doing that?

So did Clyde Cessna, legend has it he destroyed 13 airplanes before learning to fly. I don't think you can qualify someone as a "princess" if they can't financially take that route these days. I mean if those were new Cessnas, that would cost him roughly 5.2 mil to have that fun today. I know a few people who have tried - built airplanes or bought them and then tried to learn on them, none of which I might add made it past the first flight - most after they told me how stupid I was with my "lessons" and stuff. I'm not a mean person, I'm glad they didn't hurt themselves.

But I don't think we can be too hard on a person for assuming that to be a pilot that they need to find a flight school and start there. Thankfully there are some people still doing some acceptable training out there, but moving on and beyond that point is a tough leap. I get it. Been through that. "Figuring it out" isn't that easy, I'm not even sure I've even done it, and I work more at aviating than most people.

People left to their own devices after all learn by monkey see, monkey do. Its how we're wired. But when maybe none of the other monkeys know what they're doing, well if you're going to start trial and error, well hope you survive the errors. Mostly this leads to cargo cult behavior though, which is rampant in aviation. Lots of people get pretty far in aviation looking and sounding like they know what they're doing. Some are good at convincing hiring departments even to keep the charade going, or if they have enough money to fund the cosplay, they can avoid dying in planes long enough to make it to the end.

older pilots (your generation) is the one that created the rules

Its probably better these days to think of pilots in each successive training generation, as a generation may include old and young (relative terms of course) pilots. Its not the rules that are important, its the knowledge passed on, its knowledge ingrained in the systems that pilots will learn through. God knows there is a lot of bad stuff that gets passed down with the good. Almost every flight training system you will find stuff that's done and taught, that no one questions, and will be sourced to some legendary individual. With each generation, the more of that accumulates, and it seems like bad stuff, like bad news, propagates at a considerably faster rate than good stuff. God help the next generation of pilots.