“I fly to land” – A bit of introspection
The title of this post are not my words, but those of Sylvia, the pilot and writer behing Fear Of Landing. This is the kind of sentences I regret not to have found it myself. So kudos to Sylvia for these words, and for sharing the reasons behind her flying. She set up this great post, asking pilots why they fly. I strongly encourage you to visit it and leave a comment.
It’s somehow hard to admit it, but I consider myself like an average aviator and a good pilot. Sounds fuzzy ? I have more fun working the systems – on board, but also ATC and weather – than flying the aircraft. My stick and rudder skills are average-ish, I’m not particularly talented at that. What I’m good at, and where I get my pleasure from when finishing a flight, is to manage the whole thing, smoothly. I like when plans unfold as planned, when I use the on-board systems to their best, be it flying manually or with the automatics. This is certainly the reason why I like complex aircraft and fly IFR.
When the time came to establish a plan for the money I had before me, earlier this year, there were two options: renew my ratings in a DA40 with G1000 or an Arrow and then fly some hours, or get my Multi-Engine rating. Getting the multi-engine rating meant no flying after the training and checkride, because of my limited budget. I went for the Multi-Engine rating in a DA42 Twinstar. Because this was learning something new, adding to the complexity. For this training, I flew with a new instructor. He made some compliments about the very systematic way I was handling the aircraft, and working in the cockpit. I thanked my primary flight and instrument instructor for that. My new instructor did not say a word about my flying skills.
When I landed after my initial Instrument Rating skill test (for US readers, read checkride), the examiner told me: “You don’t like to fly. You like to manage the systems”. This left me speechless for a second. How could this guy grasp such a good understanding of myself within a couple of hours ? After this flight, I often had the opportunity to fly in the right hand seat of other pilots, and it was a great experience. One can learn a lot from that, about flying but also about the pilot in command. What he likes, what he like less, what are his strengths and weaknesses. In this sense, cockpits are places of truth.
Since then, I never miss the opportunity to fly with other pilots, whatever the seating plan is.
