Page 22 - TTFebruary2018

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PAUL BOWEN PHOTOGRAPHY
Sometimes everything just comes together for a textbook perfect landing, re ecting a lifetime of practice and the con uence of currency, fatigue state, the airplane, the weather and a little luck.
others fly their airplanes well, too. Although you can fly an airplane acceptably and safely “by the numbers,” to fly it well you have to adapt to the variables, to detect, measure, respond to and measure your responses by feel, artistically. You must use “the numbers” as a predictable starting point – they get you maybe 85 percent of the way there – then modify your inputs to get from that solid-B report card to A-level, 90 percent or 95 percent or 98 percent flying. If it all comes together, maybe, just maybe, you’ll occasionally attain that elusive 100 percent, A++ grade.
Prolific aviation columnist Michael Maya Charles is known for his “Artful Flying” philosophy. Michael says that his contacts with pilots of all types of aircraft and experience levels have caused him to “connect the dots between what great pilots do and the similar process a great basketball player like Michael Jordan might engage in, which is the very same process a cellist like Yo Yo Ma or Pablo Cassals might employ to become the amazing musician that brings tears of joy to our eyes when they play.” In his book Artful Flying Michael writes:
Art is the pursuit of the possible, and requires that you be fully vested, fully engaged in what you do.
Michael asks a question:
The aviation world is flush with technicians; artists are few. Artist or technician: which do you want to be?
Putting it Together
Scientists seek a Unified Field Theory (a phrase coined by Albert Einstein) that expresses all the variables of energy, mass, atomic force, electromagnetic force and gravity in a single, “elegant” field or mathematical equation. Sometimes this elusive explanation for the entire functioning of the universe is called The Theory of Everything, a framework of physics that may or may not be described by a single mathematical formula.
I tend toward the technical; that last paragraph proves it. But I’m also an artist, or at least I’m trying to be. I’m looking for a Unified Flying Theory, an aeronautical Theory of Everything, in the way I fly. I know I won’t ever get there, and if I get close it won’t be for long...because the variables are always changing. But I’m working on it, all of the time.
Ask yourself if you are primarily technical in the way you fly, doing things by procedure or by the book; or if you are mainly an artist, flying by feel. Resolve to explore the “other side” to become an A-level pilot in normal operations and in unusual-for-you operations, and any abnormal or emergency situation you’re unlucky enough to face.
20 • TWIN & TURBINE
February 2018