The Best You Can Be

[Colonel]

This always sounds stupid when I try
to put it into words, but ...

Do you want to be the very best pilot
that you can?  It's important as hell
to me (it's how I stay alive) but depressingly,
a large percentage of pilots just don't care.

If they weren't flying airplanes, they'd
be just as happy doing something else.

But there's nothing mysterious about
being the very best that you can.  Here's
how you do it:

1) Start young.  Really young.  A lot younger
than the man-haters will like.

2) Practice your @ss off

3) Don't repeat your mistakes

I think it was the NTSB in the USA that
did a broad investigation into accidents,
and the only correlation that they could
really stand behind, was that pilots that
started flying young, had fewer accidents
than pilots that started flying later in life.

They had a theory as to why, but that
was just their theory.

All the greats (and not just in aviation)
start young.  If you look at motorcycle
racers, most of them started riding and
racing when they were five (really) years
old, so that when they were 20, and at
their peak, they had 15 years experience.

A little different from North America, where
we coddle youngsters well into their 30's.

You've probably never heard of Tommy Emmanuel,
but Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler think he's
the best acoustic guitarist in the world, and
he started performing at age 5.  Here he is,
with nearly 50 years of experience:



People's shallow desires for instant gratification
aside, you don't get that good in a year.  He
practices his @ss off, just like the best pilot I
know - Rob Holland flies more than anyone
else, and flies harder than anyone else, and
that's why he's the best (#2 above).



Fly at least twice a day, if you want to get
good.  Five times a day is better.

My last point (#3) is that even if you hammer
at something, if you repeat your mistakes, you
aren't going to make progress.  You need to
have some way to identify your errors, and
how to fix them.

One way of doing this is to instrument your
flying with the new cameras, and play them
afterwards - you will amazed at what you
will learn about your flying.

[ScudRunner-d95]

To your last point there Colonel, Mrs Scudrunner bought me a GoPro for Festivus a few years ago so of course I took it to work on some flights. After reviewing the video I was shocked at my mistakes, I can only imagine what a great learning tool this would be for a guy starting out.

If your just starting out read Colonel post again.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

This deserves a bump back up as the Colonel is bang on.