Flight Training - November/December 2022 - 8

UNUSUAL ATTITUDE BY DAVE HIRSCHMAN
needs no one's permission, and there's no
obligation to fly a " stabilized approach. "
Amateurism gets a bad rap from people
who ought to know better. But aviation
should nurture its amateurs, and not
judge them by the mindless " one level of
safety " that the FAA has long espoused.
It's folly to expect lone pilots flying
Dave's parents built a kit airplane
in the 1970s and flew it all over the
country. Their perseverance and
stick-to-itiveness made an impression.
dave.hirschman@aopa.org
FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME
Pilots have long been infatuated with professionalism. We're told
from the start of flight training to aspire to fly like the pros. Train
like pros. Think like pros.
That seems reasonable, since professionalism has led to impressive improvements
in airline, military, and corporate flight safety. But the real keepers of the aviation
flame are amateurs, and they always have been.
The thousands of U.S. pilots who build and fly their own aircraft every year are
examples of the skill, perseverance, and risk-accepting independence that moves
the art and science of flying forward. The backcountry pilots who preserve and
expand remote landing sites are amateurs, and so are the vast majority of aerobatic
pilots who push the limits of human and aircraft endurance and precision.
Few pilots do those things for a living. They do them because it's their purpose.
The craftsmen who restore rare and vintage aircraft don't do it for the money,
and neither do the senior flight instructors who dedicate their time, talent, and
energy to the next generation of aviators. It's the love of the game that drives them,
and that's the very definition of amateurism.
Professionalism certainly has its place in flying. Airlines operate within a rigid
set of standards designed to ensure that each pilot is an interchangeable part in a
larger system. Every captain and co-pilot must use the same standardized callouts,
checklists, and procedures on every flight to eliminate guesswork and errors. Their
challenge is striving to perform the same tasks in the same way every time, and they
do that astonishingly well.
Many airline pilots love what they do and consider it a privilege. But their flights
are meant to follow the same predictable profiles, day after day and night after night,
with as little variation as possible. Amateurs have no such limitations.
If a backcountry pilot figures out a way to make her Super Cub land shorter or
climb steeper, she's free to go for it. If an Alaska fishing guide in a float de Havilland
Beaver wants to deliver his guests to a small lake in a confined mountain valley, he
8
FLIGHT TRAINING NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
single-engine, piston aircraft to and
from nontowered airports to rack up
the same stellar safety record as airline
crews flying multiengine turbojets at
towered airports. By the same token, it's
equally absurd to expect professionals to
innovate, experiment, and take the bold
actions that can lead to major improvements.
Their interest is maintaining, not
necessarily advancing, the status quo, and
getting paid as much as the market will
bear while doing it.
The Wright brothers were amateurs.
Charles Lindbergh was dubbed the " flying
fool " before his successful Atlantic crossing
transformed him into the " lone eagle. "
Wiley Post pioneered high-altitude flight
largely on his own.
Curtis Pitts built his first aerobatic
biplane out of cobbled-together parts, and
he seemed genuinely surprised that there
turned out to be a market for plans, then
kits, and eventually fully finished and
FAA-certified airplanes.
Dick VanGrunsven, inventor of the RV
series of experimental/amateur-built kit
airplanes, found creative ways to make
versatile new designs from the same
materials and air-cooled engines that had
been around for decades.
These amateurs, prize-seekers,
entrepreneurs, and record-setters ended
up creating entirely new businesses and
industries that seemed like lunacy to the
professionals of their era.
The revolution that has taken place
in avionics where GPS has largely
replaced radio navigation and digital glass
panels have made analog gauges obsolete
was led, in part, by amateur hobbyists
and tinkerers.
Electric propulsion, low-cost flyby-wire
control systems, and self-flying
vehicles appear on the cusp of bringing
major changes to aviation. All this innovation
is creating entirely new sub-industries
and exciting opportunities, as well as some
heartfelt nostalgia for the way things were.
But regardless of exactly how this tumultuous
period in aviation shakes out, count
on amateurs to lead the way. FT

Flight Training - November/December 2022

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