What do Dr. Myatt and Nurse Mark do when they are not researching or writing or speaking or teaching or seeing patients? Well, recently they have decided to undergo the training required to obtain their Private Pilot Certificates. That’s right, we are learning how to fly airplanes!
Why the heck would we want to do that you ask. After all, there are perfectly good airlines, quite willing to take you anywhere you want to go at a reasonable price…
You are right – there are. As long as you don’t mind the interminable lines and waits and the invasive searches and scans and the dreadfully cramped seating and the lost luggage and the…
But more than that, the act of learning keeps the mind active and sharp – we highly recommend to all that the best way to keep your mind healthy is to exercise it, regularly. And wow, this flight stuff is some exercise!
Rather like cross-training for athletes, learning a science and skill that is completely new and outside of one’s regular experience has other benefits – there are always truths and tips to be learned that spill over into and improve other areas of our lives. The list that appears below is humorous, but also very, very true for a pilot. If you think about them, there are a lot of these truths that apply to non-flyers as well. There is, for example, number 9: Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make all of them yourself. That is advice that we can all use – young, old, flyer, or not.
See how many of these you can apply to yourself as you go through your day.
Oh, and by the way – does anyone have an airplane laying about that they’re not using?
Cheers,
Nurse Mark
This appeared in Australian Aviation Magazine (June 2000)
1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.
2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.
3. Flying isn’t dangerous. Crashing is what’s dangerous.
4. It’s always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.
5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.
6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.
7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky.
8. A ‘good’ landing is one from which you can walk away. A ‘great’ landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make all of them yourself.
10. You know you’ve landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.
11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa.
12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn’t get to five minutes earlier.
13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.
14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take-offs you’ve made.
15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
17. Helicopters can’t fly; they’re just so ugly the earth repels them.
18. If all you can see out of the window is ground that’s going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be.
19. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose.
20. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgment.
21. It’s always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible.
22. Keep looking around. There’s always something you’ve missed.
23. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It’s the law. And it’s not subject to repeal.
24. The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.