Flight Training - November/December 2020 - 8

UNUSUAL ATTITUDE BY DAVE HIRSCHMAN

Editor at Large DAVE HIRSCHMAN drives
a beater 12-year-old car that he has no
plans to replace, yet he lavishes attention
and spends freely on his airplane (a Van's
Aircraft RV-4).
dave.hirschman@aopa.org

SHORT TAKES
Pilot priorities. It's OK to drive a crappy car so that you ﬂy a cool
airplane (and they're all cool airplanes!). Cars are only good for
driving to the airport, and pilots should spend as little "airplane
money" on cars as possible.
The biggest lies we tell prospective pilots is that learning to fly is easy, and
that anyone can do it. The truth is that learning to fly is difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Most who attempt the task don't complete it, and not
everyone can (or should) fly airplanes.
The best reasons to learn to fly: You want to confront a big challenge, and
you'd feel like an incomplete person if you didn't at least try.
How to turn a timid student into a tiger? Throw a roll of toilet paper out the
window, let it unfurl, and have the student slice it with the wings. They'll go
after it like a terrier chasing a rat.
What if you don't have a roll of toilet paper? Have your students follow a
twisting, turning river while keeping the airplane precisely over the middle.
They'll bank aggressively and pull hard while keeping their eyes outside. It's a
valuable exercise that also illustrates that the elevator turns the airplane, not
the ailerons.
The trick to smooth landings: Don't land. Try to fly one foot off the runway
surface for the entire length and be surprised when the main tires roll on.
Don't be an A-to-B pilot. Be an A-to-Z pilot. Learn broadly and have as
many varied aviation experiences as possible. Tailwheels, aerobatics, seaplanes,
gliders, turboprops, antiques, experimental designs, and jets are all fair game.
Try to have as many experiences as you can.

FLIGHT TRAINING NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

The biggest obstacle to pilot learning is thinking the certificates we've
already obtained make us experts.
Curiosity and humility are essential to
continuing education.
The only two bits of aerodynamic
theory pilots really must understand:
angle of attack, and the total drag
curve. Get those concepts down and
you'll be able to expand your airplane's
range, endurance, and performance.
There's no correlation between a
pilot's confidence and his or her skills.
Many skilled pilots lack confidence,
and some confident pilots lack skills.
The most simple, elegant, and
truthful aircraft instrument is a yaw
string.
The foundation of formation flying
is trust. Without trust in your fellow
pilots, other skills are irrelevant.
The best advice for living a long,
rewarding, and contended life of aerobatic flying: Get good instruction, buy
a purpose-built aerobatic airplane, and
don't do airshows. Aerobatic flight in
acrobatic category airplanes at legal
altitudes is remarkably safe.
GPS navigation, in-cockpit weather
information, graphical terrain maps,
solid-state air data computers, and digital autopilots are extraordinary safety
tools. Digital autopilots are also pretty
cool, too.
Radio navigation has outlived its
usefulness. WAAS GPS makes VORs,
localizers, and even ILS obsolete. Radio
technology was tremendous in its time,
but its time is up. If radio navigation
disappeared tomorrow, most of aviation
wouldn't notice or care.
The golden age of aviation is right
now.
Airplanes are too expensive, and
they're too cheap. The fact that these
things last for a half-century (or more)
hurts the value equation for new ones.
And the fact that there are so few new
ones, and that they're so costly, keeps
the old ones around forever.
Moderation is a worthy life goal, but
not when it comes to the centerline. Be
a zealot for the centerline. Make every
landing an accuracy landing and you'll
be ready if you're ever called upon
to land on an uncomfortably narrow
surface.
Expect that, someday, you'll be
called upon. FT

Flight Training - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - November/December 2020