Page 38 - Volume 20 Number 7

36 • TWIN & TURBINE JULY 2016
From the Flight Deck by Kevin R. Dingman We the Pilots
Most of the time we effortlessly shift between these hats and are pretty good at managing all of them. The task-compartmentalizer in you is part of what makes you a good pilot and helps you to engage laser-like focus when needed.
Slapped
“Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But, to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.”
– Captain A. G. Lamplugh, circa early 1930’s
Sometimes while in The Seat, the mission requires the undistracted ability to wear just one hat: that of the PIC. Like many professions, this one requires an ongoing commitment to education, training and practice in order to properly execute the responsibilities. Unlike most professions, however, if we display even the slightest carelessness, incapacity or neglect, to an even greater degree than the sea, it’s not uncommon for the airplane, the weather, the system in which we operate or bad luck (Ernie Gann called it fate) to slap us down hard. So hard, in fact, that we may only get slapped once. Unfortunately, and in the true fashion of a properly delivered slap, sometimes even the best of us never see it coming. We must therefore be diligent in our duties in order to avoid being surprised by that terribly unforgiving,
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
– Abraham Lincoln
For the Pilots of Owner-Flown, Cabin-Class Aircraft. That’s what it says there on the cover, right under Twin & Turbine. Conversationally, we all just say “T&T.” It’s a boutique periodical for an elite and select few. Well, a select fifty-thousand or so that, as Honest Abe inferred, “have learned to hustle and to whom things have come.” You’ve told me that you are proud to carry it in the plane and to display it at the office. We who help put it together are grateful; thank you.
Having pride in how far you’ve come in your piloting career and airplane ownership is a well- deserved acknowledgement of ability and hard work... and maybe some luck. None of the magazine’s sub-title description of you, your airplane or your accomplishments are taken for granted by the advertisers, publisher, the editor or We the Writers. Like our national freedom, our aviation freedoms weren’t easy to obtain or maintain. Perhaps a prideful raising of our chin
and a contemplative sigh is all right as we celebrate our independence this July.
The words in our magazine’s title were chosen with deliberation and purpose. “Pilot” is used to denote leadership, authority, control, diligence and trust; to guide and direct; to captain and shepherd – characteristics not unlike those of the brave souls that signed The Declaration of Independence. Not many folks are pilots and, if you read the other aviation magazines, you know that our numbers have dwindled. As far as the general population goes, they stand at the airport fence in awe, camera in hand, wishing they were you.
It’s not “We the People”, or “When, in the course of human events,”; our cover boldly proclaims: For The Pilots. That’s you, and the position you hold when in The Seat. You’re not part of the cabin crew or a chauffeured passenger and you’re not at the airport fence taking pictures; you are the picture. You’re not the financier, mechanic, baggage handler, fueler, scheduler or cleaner, although some, even all, of these titles may apply before you take the left seat and after you shut down.