You battle traffic and eventually make it to flight school without a minute to spare, you know that even though you are on time, you are late by the look of your instructor from the other side of the counter. You request the keys to your assigned plane and rush to the tarmac to do your pre-flight inspection since the clock is ticking, and as you learn early on in aviation, there is little to no time for small talk when you are taking lessons. As you briskly walk to find the plane among the 2 dozens tail numbers, you are doing a mental checklist to see if you have everything. Headsets? check, Fuel tester? check, Writing pen, check, and on and on.
If you have a personality like me, you tend to think, there are more efficient ways to do this pre-flight checklist, so you re-arrange the sequence of certain things like leaving the master switch on after checking the fuel gauge, after all eventually you are going to check the lights when you check each wing so why not leave it the master switch on until the end of your checklist.
You finish the outside portion of the pre-flight checklist and you climb inside, at this point your instructor meets you and you get that feeling of “ok, total concentration now”. The instructor sets the radio frequencies since you still can’t seem to grasp the “simplicity” of maneuvering the radios, and the instructor asked you to contact clearance. Since radio comms seems to be your nemesis your stress level starts increasing and after shocking on the radio call out, your self-esteem takes a punch to the belly, somehow you manage to sound acceptable to clearance and you get your instructions to run short to E4 and hold. Rest of the procedures continue and eventually, you take off, fly around, do maneuvers, and land the plane. You survive the day.
The point of the story is how a series of seemingly small unfortunate events keep new pilots pre-occupied in an already hectic evolution of learning something as intense as flying.
“Every problem, begs a solution” Ron Ackerman
Things can go South at any moment in our lives. It is not different in Aviation and sometimes we have little to no control over circumstances; however, for the things we have control over and do not control them we are doing ourselves a great disservice.
I was taught a few years ago to ask myself often a profound question “what did I lack in x,y, or z situation?”, This simple question put us in a mental frame of taking ownership of our participation in whatever happens around us. Sort of a “what could I have done better?” type of question.
In my story above, I was running late to start with. To put it in general aviation terms, I started my final approach very unaligned with the runway. Simple solution, get to the airport 20 minutes earlier than your scheduled flight. It sounds very basic, but believe when I say there is a lot of “us” out there, kind of like me telling a smoker to quit smoking, very easy for me since I have never smoked.
The second thing I could have done is to properly express to my instructor how inadequate and intimidated I feel about talking with ATC. Perhaps scheduling some ground time to practice the comms and minimize the fear. In this topic, I also found an online real-time communication add-on (https://www.ivao.aero/) for my Prepar3D flight simulator, where 1000’s of people from all over the world join to act as pilots or ATC so others can practice from the comfort of their computers.
Finally, I would say that there are 2 ways people learn, by pain or by observing. In this story, I learned that pre-flight checklist have a sequence for a reason, my leaving the Master Switch on during my pre-flight checklist cost me an additional 1/2 hour, big lesson, nowadays that master stays on less than a minute while I swiftly check the lights and accessories.
” It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped”Tony Robbins
Like many times in the last few years, I drove by Kendall Tamiami Regional Airport (KTMB), and inevitably looked up at the small Cessna lifting up after takeoff and now flying just about 200 feet above me while still climbing in altitude. The erratic banking of the wings left and right looked like a new student pilot was flying the small aircraft. The obvious slow rate of climb of a Cessna made the flying look an impossible feat, after all, I am all too used to watching the fast speed of jets taking off from Miami International Airport. As I daydream at the traffic intersection the light turned green and I had to keep driving, which I did while remembering how much I dreamed of piloting an airplane since I was a kid. In an unexpected -even for me- swift decision I turned right and drove into the KTMB airport, as I am passing the planes parked in their assigned positions I sensed the smile on my face. I drove past multiple fly schools and stopped at the last one on the left, ADF. I walked inside still not sure of what to ask but after lingering in the lobby for about 20 minutes the man on the counter approached me and we started talking about obtaining my private pilot license (PPL), 10 mins later I walked out with a pamphlet and a price list. I was going to do this.
“Considering all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, that the moment one definitely commits oneself, THEN providence moves too” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
With a proposal in the neighborhood of $13,000 to complete fly school and obtain my PPL, I started to question additional factors like: do I have the time to do this? Am I too old for learning to fly? I am considering the real risk of losing my life?. All seemingly good questions, but just as real and important was my desire to pilot a plane by myself. So I prayed and dreamed about it for a few days after, I remember telling my self ” Ron remember 4 important letters. Y.O.L.O. 😊
Good company in a journey makes the way shorter. — Izaak Walton
How many of us remember our childhood dreams? The things we once said we would do. Those were the times when everything was possible in our minds, I for once, remember that time when my dad drove me into the airport (he had full access to the airport at the time) and parked just about 100 meters from the runway so I could take a picture of the Concorde taking off. I was 11 and I had my new camera with me. I prepared to take the picture, I was so excited. The noise and the heat were very real and my senses were at 100%. As the Concord was holding at the end of the runway no more than 200 meters from our position, I was debating in my mind whether to take the pictures during the actual rotation of the plane or while moving so I would have time to cover my ears during take off. I guess I felt more committed to taking the picture to capture the roll so I braced for what would be a scary strong jet sound while taking off. The majestic Concorde punch to full thrust and my senses doubled, laser focus concentration and I was going thru my own mental checklist to take the picture at the right moment. What happened next threw me completely off, as the Concorde commenced moving purposedly through the runway, one of the front tires blew up. The pilot apparently felt it because almost immediately the concord dove its noise and it was obvious by the sound of the turbines and the speed that the majestic Concorde was aborting the take-off. My mind could not believe what was happening, I saw the tire blow up as the aircraft was approaching my position, and yet I did not take the picture, and now things were moving so fast, my mind was trying to make sense of the whole thing while the plane was coming to a full stop merely 100 meters or so from where we were standing. Moments later, emergency vehicles were rushing in the distance towards the plane, my dad told me we had to leave immediately, and we did.
The whole ordeal was fascinating to me, and for many years I was mesmerized by the notion that something so heavy could defy gravity successfully. I was hooked, I had to be part of it.
I had some experience flying a Cessna when I was 13 but mainly on the “hold the yoke for a little while” category. I also had at least 100 hours of MS Flight Simulator, along with that now many years later, having flown over 50,000 miles as a passenger in several commercial airliners, I have not lost my desire to pilot an airplane, to be part of what defies gravity.
In my twenties, while in the U.S. Army I was stationed with the 82nd Airborne Division where I had the privileges to jump out airplanes many times, this was a rush unlike anything I had experienced before, it was the closest thing to flying, but in reality it was falling down to earth, not much control and too little time to experience the freedom of being like a bird. Parachuting was in my bucket list and I fell in love with the fear and adrenaline rush, but I still had flying an airplane in the bucket list, so after decades from those experiences, one day I told myself, Ron remember, YOLO. Thus, here is my story…
One's journey to a Private Pilot License. 