Flight Training - November 2013 - 10

LETTERS

Talk back
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COMMENTS. Please email letters
to flighttraining@aopa.org. Letters
will be edited for style and space.

BIG-TENT THEORY

JUST DON’T BE ‘THAT GUY’

enjoyed reading Ian Twombly’s “Right Seat: Big Tent Theory”
(September 2013 Flight Training), and in particular his point
about discouraging condescending references to other less
experienced, less knowing, or prospective pilots. It’s a great
point and an important element in opening our “big tent.” Our elitism
has to go or we will have no one left to impress but ourselves.
My pleasure taken in reading Ian’s keen observation was painfully
obliterated when pages later, I read a bold highlighted piece headlined
“Don’t Be That Guy,” which completely undermined Ian’s wise counsel.
In that piece, references were cited as being from a friend who flies for
the airlines and one air traffic controller told me..., both followed by sarcastic comments of things they hear from pilots on the radio. Granted,
things heard may seem silly in the context presented, but imagine the
trepidation created in the new pilot reading this—to whom this publication is exactly aimed.
Think this is an all-too-typical example
of how we must change how we communicate, especially to those we need most.
How about we just do what Ian suggested?
Thanks, AOPA. We need you more
than ever, or else we may be watching a
descending spiral to an ignominious end
of a passion that only we will remember,
and, one I fear that our government will be
more than happy to clear us Direct to....
Darrell Wilson
Phoenix, Arizona
Congratulations for what Ian Twombly
wrote in the latest issue of Flight Training.
I couldn’t agree more. Finding reasons for
the lack of people going into aviation is not
rocket science. One of the main reasons—
and I say it out of my own experience as
a student before I got my ticket—has to
do with the lack of good instructors. Like
everything else in life, people should not
do things that are not their calling. They
harm, they disservice hundreds of people
willing to do something significant in life.
Martín Lozano
San Rafael, California
NO MORE MONKEY BUSINESS

One of the reasons that pilots get nervous
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FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

about radio calls is that our community is
unreasonably pedantic about communications. In the September article “No More
Monkey Business” you quote an air traffic
controller who is tempted to roll her eyes
when someone checks in using “with you
at…” Her rationale? The pilot is not, literally, in her physical presence. Now is that
reasonable grounds to criticize a radio call
that is concise, accurate, and universally
understood? It is not.
We practice good radio communication
not for its own sake but as a means to an
end for safety. Those who pedantically
criticize are not helping to improve aviation safety but are rather indulging their
own egos.
Thomas Mulligan
New Orleans, Louisiana
WHOOPS

While I would love to claim credit for
the idea of the radio script in “No More
Monkey Business,” it should correctly be
attributed to Arlynn McMahon of AeroTech in Lexington, Kentucky. I use and
adapted the idea from her as published in
her book Train Like You Fly.
Peg Ballou, Ballou Skies Aviation
Bucyrus, Ohio

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Flight Training - November 2013

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