Athlete's and Pilots

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

It takes all types. I've seen overweight/fat folks who are good; computer geeks; engineer geeks (similar to computer geeks); and athletes all seem to be good. By the same token, there are ones who aren't as good. Nothing new under the sun. I would concur the fighter jocks need better eye/hand coordination plus the warrior spirit/"aggressive" traits which ties in nicely with sports mindset.

 

[DLax85]

In my six years of watching 15+ classes of Phase II T-37 and T-6 students come through the flight room it does seem that those who played team sports involving lots of motion and running plays (basketball, soccer, lacrosse, hockey to name a few) seem to pick up on the pattern a little faster than those without a team sport background. I know there are always exceptions, but knowing where the forward is and where he is going on the fast break seems to help guys spatially orient to all those UPT RSU pattern calls.

The fastest solo I have ever witnessed happened four years ago. We had a student go dollar ride to soloing a 37 in 15 calendar days. No prior flying time other than the AF issued IFT private license, and not the greatest hands, but a real quick learner and picked up on the pattern really quickly. She played intramural hoops at the zoo and may have played some lacrosse in high school.

Spot on!

In the end, it's all about developing "situational awareness" and "judgement" skills...leading/executing a "fast break" in any of the sports listed above clearly builds those skills.

 

[rickair7777]

I think what differentiates a good pilot from great pilot, and by default a bad pilot is leadership. Athletes in general embrace the leader role moreso than others. Hand-eye - shamd eye, I can do 200 pushups. Big deal. Can you direct a crew or formation in stressful situations with little time to think? Athletes deal with these issues when they are very young and in their formative years. They see it firsthand when they were learning the sport from the older teammates and more hands on when they are the older teammates expected to display leadership. So, I think, being an athlete is part of a good pilot, but the real attribute is leadership. Not all athletes are leaders and not all leaders are athletes, but I bet in more cases than not, your athletes are going to be out front when leadership is needed. Just my opinion.

This is true. My kids are required participate in SOME sort of athletic activity for this reason, as well as the health benefits. It's simply an aspect of being well rounded.

A trained monkey (or 12 year video gamer) can fly an airplane...solving wx, mx, pax, ramp, regulatory, and policy problems in a dynamic, interactive team environment is where pilots earn their pay.

 

[talondriver]

Seeing my share of "athletes" (academy or other NCAA letter winners) go through the '38 track, I've noticed that being an athlete doesn't set you apart from the rest of the class when it comes to flying skills...or even enhanced situational awareness. Some do really well and some suck. It's definitely an individual thing. One of my best students was an academy football player and it wasn't just his flying skills, but his eagerness to learn and help out his fellow classmates. I've also seen a couple of notable
USAFA football players who brought their "BMOC" status with them to SUPT and didn't make any friends when it came to their IPs.

I personally think surfers make the best pilots .

Hey Droopy!! What's up? :beer: