I soloed!

[Sig]

... ten years ago today.

Wow.

 

[joe_pilot]

... ten years ago today.

Wow.

Smart@ss!

Congrats, none the less. I have a beer in my hand so...there goes a drink to you. So what have you learned in a decade of flying?

 

[Sig]

Smart@ss!

Congrats, none the less. I have a beer in my hand so...there goes a drink to you. So what have you learned in a decade of flying?

That's a good question, and I have a cheezy sounding but extremely true answer.

Experience is exactly what you get a second after you really needed it- and you'll never stop gaining experience. What changes is the gap between "OH, #HIT," and getting it fixed. I can't explain it, because it comes from being there and doing that. And what comes with it is this very strange sense of humility- I know enough to know that I know jack squat about flying, and I readily admit it. Many around me have more experience with a LOT fewer hours, and are much better pilots for it.

Everybody can tell a war story; from unforecast winds from hades that seemed to blow perpendicular to every runway in 10000 square miles, to real life threatening events. If you CAN tell a war story, you did SOMETHING right, right?

Another truism that I've had a rare chance to see- everybody pretty much flies the same (normal ops) at 300, 1000, 5000 and 15000 hours. That is, those are milestones I could easily guage when I flew with folks with those times, and a rough check of my memories shakes those out as the biggest milestones. In other words, take three pilots with 5000 hours and you'll see them fly pretty much equally; much better than the 1000 hour guys and not as smooth/intuitive as a 15000 hour guy, especially if you put them in a plane they've never flown before. Of course, there are exceptions everywhere and that's based on something north of 80 8710s I signed.

After ten years, I'm coming up on the third milestone. I have tons of war stories, but I feel exceptionally inexperienced... Look at the freight dawgs who fly in and out of the remotest, nastiest places in the world routinely, and then look at me plunk a plane that weighs 32,000 pounds on a 4300 foot runway at night, after circling in high winds. Cakewalk. And that's as tough as it gets in normal ops for me. Ooooh! I only have 9800 feet of concrete to hit! Whatever will I dooooo??

I'd be terrified to fly a 172 tomorrow (I only have a couple hundred hours SE), but I'm willing to bet I'd have it nailed in one dual flight. Then again, maybe not. That gap might be too big yet for me to go up there by my lonesome, and I'd KNOW it.

Maybe that's the point. I don't know- I'm too stupid to tell.

** this post really isn't for you, though- you're waayyyy ahead of me. Just what I've seen and think about when asked that question. Wish I'd read this 10 years ago, it would have braced me for some of the "OH, PEWP" moments and given me a better idea of what it means to have done this a decade. Answer? Not much, really. Wish I could have a beer, that's for sure.

 

[hoop]

Good post Sig.... Very insightful!

 

[RichardRambone]

Admittedly my IFR skills are good but can always be better. I gave a 10,000 hour jet jock an IPC and he showed me truly how its done, and he rarely flies IFR anymore. I guess at that stage you've pretty much mastered the basics. I look forward to those days.