Page 4 - Volume 18 Number 6

2 • TWIN & TURBINE
JUNE 2014
editor’sbriefing
The Challenges and Rewards
Over the years, I have had the privilege of introducing a few hundred individuals to the wonders of flight. It truly has been a distinct privilege, and a source of great satisfaction. It’s also somewhat humbling to mold raw clay into the shape of a pilot and breathe life into it, knowing that you will
bear the responsibility for whatever flaws you introduce into that ab initio student.
Teaching, as anyone knows who instructs in a professional capacity, is its own reward. The pay scale, particularly at the entry level, doesn’t keep us in the game. It’s the relationships created, the contacts made, and the paybacks from those students who remember you as the one that held the door open to another world...those are the real rewards for instructing. I have four-stripe air carrier pilots who took their first hour with me, and I’ve started F-15 pilots, carrier-qualified pilots, heavy-lift rotorwing pilots and flight test engineers. Their success, of course, is their own, not mine; all I did was strike the spark and fan the flame a bit.
The challenge of adapting a basic syllabus to a student’s ability to absorb a totally-new subject is something that never gets old. If every individual had the same learning style, it would be simple, but that’s just not the case. In a larger sense, that experience mirrors a lot of what general aviation is about. Each day’s flight requires some adaptation of our approach to the task. Meeting that challenge is what flying is all about.
We face challenges, every day, when we open the hangar door. We have to ignore the majority of the non-flying world that freely advises us not to bother; “I flew to Sacramento last week,” they’ll say, when they really mean they were flown there, sitting in 16C under the overhead bin. “It was only 10 hours, driving down to Florida,” one of my friends will say. And we smile, knowing there is another option, one with great rewards, for those up to the challenge.
My doctor, who has expressed an interest, glowed with enthusiasm when we met last week. He was invited to fly 400 miles in a private jet to watch a Final Four basketball game, getting back home that evening in time to sleep in his own bed and be in the office next morning. “That was different,” he said. “No standing in line, no waiting around, just climb in and go.” He now gets it.
And so, we accept the challenges – whether it’s taking on a new student, attempting a fresh type rating, learning new avionics, or flying to a new destination – because we know that’s how the rewards are generated. Personal aviation gives back, with that uplifting experience we get when we ease the nose up on takeoff, knowing it’s our own hand that’s making it happen. Sure, it’s a challenge, but, like NBAA and GAMA have been telling us for years, “No Plane, No Gain”.
LeRoy Cook. Editor