Scudrunners

I am thinking about the turn this thread made and comparing the late life example to David Lee Roth. He has become a parody of himself and that is actually impressive in a horrific way. His performances have become much like Tammy Fay Baker's make up. No one can talk them out of it either.

I will attempt to digress.

I think what the Colonel was going for before the turn was. If you have a pilot with 200 hours of mediocre or poor training and another guy has 50 hours of excellent training on conventional gear with plenty of cross winds. The 50 hour guy is going to be much better.

It's pretty obvious that if you want to
be the best pilot that you can be - which
amazingly, not everyone is - you need
to work on these skills:

1) stick and rudder.  Learn to use the
rudder pedals, so you can comfortably
do a one-wheel touch and goes with a
15 knot direct crosswind, when all the
other PPL's are ground.  Hell, all my
STUDENT pilots can do that.

2) systems knowledge.  You had better
know what can kill you, and what can
put you on the front page of the newspaper.
Without a doubt the fuel system is of the
utmost importance.  Retractable gear,
too.  Normal and emergency procedures,
and [b]DON'T SCREW UP HERE[/b].  Priorities.
You can screw up plenty of stuff and get
away with it, but you can't screw up the
fuel and gear.  Really basic, important
stuff:  don't run out of gas, and don't forget
to lower the gear.

PS  Remember that video a couple months
ago of the Piper Aerostar that did the gear-up
bounce?  I ignored it, but it turns out that I
know the guy!  Hell, my dad worked on that
airplane.  What a character Chris is.

3) weather.  Poorly taught and really important.
Low cloud, icing and CB's have killed more pilots
than all sexually transmitted diseases combined,
and that's really quite something.

4) Procedures.  Airspace.  Regulations.  You know,
chickenshit.

Those 4 things are what you need to learn, to
become a good pilot.  Oh, and to eat shit with
a spoon.  I never did, but if you do, it will make
your life a whole lot easier, dealing with clowns.

While there certainly are a lot of basic generalizations that can be made, there are actually some people (not many, but a few) that just should not fly (bad coordination, wrong temperament, whatever).  There are also some that maybe have no talent in the area, but if they want it badly enough can overcome that and become good pilots, through effort and practice and yes, maybe way more instruction that normal.

I also wouldn't have thought that there'd actually be those who are gifted in flying (i.e. hand and feet skills). I couldn't really pinpoint the exact natural skills that would give them a natural affinity for the aircraft, but I have met a few (a very few).  Interestingly enough, two that come to mind are related.  There are other pilots in their family as well, so I think that they have that rare natural skill set (whatever that may be).

Personally, I fall in the middle with most people, but had a really gifted and dedicated instructor who got me through in minimum time, even including the flight test.  I honestly think that my low hours had little to do with me (other than me being a diligent student and doing my homework) and mostly to do with my instructor being very demanding and ensuring I understood what I was being taught.  I felt bad for other people at the flying club who had instructors who seemed to be there to collect a paycheck and get to fly.  All these years later and I still recall hearing one guy ask his instructor, "What chapters should I read to be prepared for the next lesson?" and the instructor responding "Oh, don't worry about it"  he might even have added something like 'I'll brief you in the air', but I can't recall if he said it or I just got that impression that that was how he operated.  The student confided to methat he wanted to switch but frankly he was such a nice guy that he felt a certain (misguided) loyalty.  Such a shame!

The difficulty of flying an airplane is vastly over stated by most pilots.

An airplane has four attitudes you must learn and three movements you produce or control with the flight controls.

Very few people in society are so dumb they can't learn these simple rules.

If attitudes and movements are not properly taught and understood the pilot will ever be able to figure out how to make the airplane go where they want it to go.

[quote]They might be simple principles, but few feel the need to practice them much less master them. Its much like anything else, master basics, then move to the complex. That's a lot of work though, and usually not very exciting, hence the pomp and pageantry that is often sought out for flight training.

[/quote]

When I was teaching flying the student either learned and understood attitudes and movements or their training ended there.

Period.

[quote]

Their training with you maybe. As I've found, my refusal to train people doesn't stop them from getting licenses.[/quote]

The the problem has to be poor over site of flight instructors.

Which means all that pablum the new flight instructors had to regurgitate for the T. C. inspectors was just window dressing and the license is a farce.