Page 40 - Volume 15 Number 7

38 • TWIN & TURBINE JJUUULYY22001111From the Flight Deck by Kevin R. DingmanSomethin’ From Nothin’In 1974 Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher wrote and recorded the lyrics:“Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’;ya gotta have somethin’if ya wanna be with me.”That same year it became the first musical performance ever on Saturday Night Live, arguably the largest producer of original comedy stars of our generation.Have you ever created somethin’ from nothin’? Comedy, music, literature, a painting or sculpture? Something functional maybe – like a piece of furniture, birdhouse or ... an airplane? Something from your mind, an original idea; like John Nash’s Nobel Prize winning odyssey in governing dynamics: Equilibrium.In the early days of your education I’m sure you created many “projects” at school that were delivered quite ceremoniously to Mom and Dad or the grandparents. Remember? I know I did. Paintings and drawings, pottery or perhaps a report (they wouldn’t be called a “paper” until later in life, and a thesis even later). How about the small ceramic cup for Mom that had your name and the year carved into the unglazed bottom? Or the paper titled: “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” “Me and My Dog Cindy,” or this one: “My First Solo.”Do you recall the most difficult part of those projects? For me it was trying to decide what to write or what to make; thinking of a concept and getting started. The beginning.Your Project Is JunkUnfortunately, as we progress in age and education level, the painfully honest critics ooze from the woodwork. The responses to our piece of misshapen pottery, off- key musical performances, dreadful paintings, or tiresome papers are no longer the oohs and aahs of a friendly audience. Once you’ve been told a few times your work isn’t very good, and because we don’t like to hear that our project is junk, we get fearful of displaying our creativity. We don’t like to be told that our ideas are stupid and won’t work, especially if it turns out to be true a few times; it can be difficult to remain resilient. So we get timid and eventually give up or hide our works. Without a mentor or friend to persuade and challenge us to continue, our courage can take time to recover or be rekindled. Sometimes it’s been destroyed.I’m not a very “artsy” guy. I can’t paint or draw creatively. But, there’s a new 20-by-24-foot deck with an ornate railing and two sets of steps attached to my house.Even though I had acompleted picture of it in my mind, it was built from scratch with no plans – a totally “design-as-you-go” project.A couple years ago a friend and I re-wrote the lyrics to a very successful song then had it produced, recorded, licensed and performed at an event. It was a foray into “creativity.” And as you can see, I’m writing. Thankfully, you’ve been more than kind to me so far. Your patience is drawing thin with this story though, you say? What does this blabbering have to do with flying? Well my fellow intrepid aviators, everything actually. Our very existence as pilots, and if I may, as sentient beings!What Would Happen If...Airframes and airfoils, powerplants, avionics, instrument approaches, aerobatics, construction materials and techniques, flying songs, poems, stories, and manuals – all these things at one time were nothing. They did not exist. Someone at some point said to themselves: “I