Quantcast

Smart Flight Training

...because great pilots are made, not born!

My Most Memorable Passenger – A Blogging in Formation Post

by 9 Comments

This month’s Blogging in Formation topic is “Dealing with Passengers.”

As a flight instructor, most of my “passengers” are not passengers, at least not as that is normally defined. My passengers are actively learning to fly, and to – over time – become NOT passengers but pilots.

So I don’t have as much experience with passengers as many of the other formation bloggers, but I do have a very memorable passenger who I would like to talk about in today’s post: my daughter, Wynnie!

Airplane Kids

Wynnie is two and a half years old, and I was recently able to take her (and her two cousins) up for their first flight.

Her cousins are five and three, and all three of them really enjoyed their first flight!

It was a very simple flight – we took off from KOSU (The Ohio State University Airport), turned north, and flew circles low over the Columbus Zoo (one of the places all the kids love to visit).

All three of the kids loved the flight!

What was most interesting to me was that getting them in the plane was not just about their first flight and whether they would like it, but their reactions and behavior during the flight was eye-opening for me, as well!

Wynnie In Plane

It was very interesting to see Wynnie’s personality emerge (or amplify) in her carseat in the back of the C172.

At first, on the way to the zoo, Wynnie was stoic. Looking straight ahead, there was no emotion on her face. When I turned around and asked her if she was having fun, her face lit up! “Yes!” she said, beaming.

Then her face went right back to the poker-face she had on before.

She looked out the window as we banked around the zoo and over the river, as did her cousins, whose reactions were no less telling then hers.  You could see the logic and passion and curiosity come alive in all three of them, in differing degrees.

Notwithstanding her stoicism, my wife and I joke that Wynnie is definitely my daughter, since the flying bug has bitten her as early and as strongly as it did me. She has the “pilot’s curse” of having to look up and locate every aircraft we hear as it flies above.

Andrew and Kids

When we visited my father-in-law in Raleigh, North Carolina, we also went to visit a nearby airport in the hopes that we would fly in (in a couple hours) instead of driving in (about 10-hours on the road). When we got near the airport, a plane was holding short of the runway for takeoff, and Wynnie said “That’s Daddy’s airplane! I’m so excited!”

We talked to a few people and looked around at the amenities.  Wynnie and Granddad watched airplanes for a bit, and then we started to get in the car to go.

Wynnie didn’t want to go, because she thought we were going to go for an airplane ride. And when I say she didn’t want to go, I mean she REALLY didn’t want to go.  We’re talking TOTAL MELTDOWN.  It took both my wife and me holding her down in her carseat to get her strapped in so we could finally leave, while I promised her that we would take lots more airplane rides, just not today.

I know how she feels. A girl after my own heart!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Don’t miss the rest of the Blogging in Formation posts:

BlogFormation_WingsMarch 1: Saturday:
Brent Owens –  iFLYblog
Mark L Berry – marklberry.com/blog

March 2: Sunday:
Andrew Hartley – Smart Flight Training
Rob Burgon – http://tallyone.com

March 3: Monday:
Karlene Petitt – Flight to Success
Chip Shanle – www.project7alpha.com

March 4: Tuesday:
Eric Auxier – Adventures of Cap’n Aux
Ron Rapp – House of Rapp

If you like what you see, share us with your friends: #blogformation

12 Aviation Resolutions – A Blogging in Formation Post

by 6 Comments

This is installment nine of the Blogging in Formation Series, a monthly series where six big-time aviation bloggers put their heads (and blogs) together and post about the same topic, each in their own special way.

fireworks

Ah, New Year’s.

The time of year to suffer all the prediction posts about what will happen in the upcoming year. If you have been a follower of the Blogging in Formation series for any length of time, you are aware of my disdain for predictions.

So I’m not going to do one.

What I will do is suggest how you might choose your resolution(s) for 2014 – at least as they relate to aviation.

But first, let me give you my aviation resolutions for 2014:

  1. Complete my CFII (by March?)
  2. Blog more regularly (if it weren’t for Blogging in Formation, I wouldn’t have blogged at all the past few months)
  3. Podcast more consistently

Now they are out there and public! That should be even more motivation for me to follow through on all of them in 2014.

But what about you?

If you are reading this post and following the Blogging in Formation series, you are either a pilot or you would like to be a pilot!

With that in mind, I’d like to suggest 12 aviation resolutions – 1 for each month of the year of 2014.  You certainly don’t have to do all of these, but what a fun challenge that might be – to do one of these suggested resolutions each month in 2014 (just print this post and use it as a checklist – you’re familiar with checklists, yes?)!  Or simply choose one of these if you are having trouble deciding on your own aviation resolution for 2014:

    • If you are not a pilot yet – START YOUR TRAINING!Go out to your closest airport and talk to an instructor about starting (or finishing) your flight training. Set a goal to get through solo, or to complete a Sport Pilot Certificate, or Recreational Pilot Certificate, or even go all the way through the Private Pilot Certificate!

      If you are already a pilot – GET A NEW RATING!

      Start working on that instrument rating, or a Seaplane Rating, or Multi-Engine, or Glider, or Rotorcraft – you get the idea!

    • Simply set more time aside to fly!Do your best to at least stay current. Get your Flight Review done if you need to, and go get an instructor and practice landings at least once every ninety days! Don’t fool yourself into thinking that this makes you proficient, but also take pride in being able to call yourself a “current pilot” – even if that is all you can manage!

 

    • The $100 Hamburger FlightThese days it might be a $250 hamburger, but the idea still stands. This resolution is one you could do twelve times throughout the year and still meet the spirit of the post. It might even help you meet resolution 2 if you do it consistently!

 

    • Fly a Different TypeIt’s quite possible that you flew one type of airplane while getting your certificate – most likely a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Go out and fly a new kind of plane! If all your training was in a high-wing, go out with an instructor (or another pilot who is familiar with the plane) in a low-wing. Or a glider. Or a helicopter. Or a high-performance/complex something. Get creative! Have fun!

 

  • Take someone on their first flightThere is nothing quite like taking someone on their first airplane ride – whether they love it or they vomit on final approach (both of these have happened to me on intro flights) it is an experience that you both will remember! Imagine the impact we could have in getting people interested in aviation if every pilot took up one new-to-flying person per year!

 

    • Shoot an instrument approachEven if you don’t have an instrument rating, and even if you never plan on getting one, get with an instructor or another current and proficient instrument pilot and go shoot an approach. Breaking out of the grey and haze of the clouds and seeing an airport in front of you is nothing short of magic, and every pilot should experience this from the cockpit at least once in their career, even if the career is a hobby!

 

  • Give Back
    Join the Civil Air Patrol and fly as a mission pilot on search and rescue missions. Volunteer as a pilot for Air Care Alliance and fly medical patients to badly needed treatments. Or save animals from being euthanized by volunteering for Pilots-N-Paws and flying animals to no-kill shelters or to their new homes. Or choose from many of the other aviation charities out there!

  • Fly in to a Fly-In Breakfast (or lunch or dinner or Saturday at Sporty’s for a free Hot Dog)
    Check out Social Flight or Google “Fly-Ins in [your area]” to find an airport that has this kind of activity scheduled and go! This is a great way to use your certificate for something other than flying the pattern or flying circles around your (or your friend’s) house.

  • Fly to an unfamiliar airport
    This one can be combined with several of the others, but keeping yourself sharp by planning a flight, navigating to a new place, and finding that new airport that you have never been to before is not only valuable and ego-boosting – it’s fun!

  • Take an actual vacation by airplane
    For all the talk of the utility of the airplane, I don’t actually know very many people who have taken a plane to go on vacation once they have their pilots license and the ability to do so. So go take a long weekend with the family and fly somewhere you would not be able to go by car – whether that is simply a farther distance or a place that is difficult to get to by car, but not so difficult by airplane (I’m thinking backcountry out West)!

  • Fly into / out of a grass strip
    For some, this may be how they fly every time they go up, but for many pilots doing a soft-field takeoff or landing is a maneuver they have to demonstrate to get their certificate, but they will only ever do it from a concrete strip. Go out and do it for real – with an instructor or an experienced pilot who is familiar with turf operations, of course!

  • Aerobatics or Upset Recovery Training
    Take an aerobatic lesson or several. Complete an Upset Recovery Training course. Or just get an instructor and do some spin training! Any of these things will increase your comfort with the plane, will increase your skills and confidence as a pilot, and will make you safer. Not to mention they are a whole ton of fun!

 

So there you are! Take any or all of these suggested aviation resolutions and make a commitment to do them in 2014!

And let me add 1 more – read the other Blogging in Formation posts this month! We are trying out a new format: two bloggers a day, completing the series in three days instead of six. So go read Karlene’s post today too! Here’s this month’s schedule:

Jan. 1: Smart Flight Training – Andrew Hartley & Flight to Success – Karlene Petitt
Jan. 2: House of Rapp – Ron Rap & Adventures of Cap’n Aux – Eric Auxier
Jan. 3: iFlyBlog – Brent Owens & Mark L. Berry

Andrew Hartley is a certificated flight instructor and commercial pilot in Columbus, Ohio. He hopes his new year’s resolution to only say nice things about people isn’t misinterpreted as a vow of silence.

The Smart Flight Training Aviation Christmas Gift List

by 5 Comments

This is installment eight of the Blogging in Formation Series, a monthly series where six big-time aviation bloggers put their heads (and blogs) together and post about the same topic, each in their own special way.

"Santa in a Staggerwing" Credit: Liz Matzelle / Historic Flight Foundation
“Santa in a Staggerwing” Credit: Liz Matzelle / Historic Flight Foundation

Enter the Holiday season, 2013.

We Formation Bloggers have decided to post about what we would like to see under our aviation Christmas Tree, and with that in mind, I immediately started to think of all the “things” that I would love to have to make my flying safer, easier, and more enjoyable.

Things like:

A Sporty’s SP-400 Handheld NAV/COM Aviation Radio
A Garmin D2 Pilot Watch
A fancy new Active Noise Reduction (ANR) Headset
An e-logbook, like Logbook Pro
Or even just something fun like a Lego airplane kit

But as my wife and I were driving to North Carolina (yes – driving. Like on the road.), I was talking about this post and wondering what I should write about, and she asked me what *I* wanted under *my* “aviation Christmas tree.

And my answer was “my CFII rating.” And I realized that I really don’t want or need more aviation “stuff.” Not that I would complain if Santa brought me a Dual XGPS190 GPS + ADS-B Weather Receiver, but what I *really* want, nobody can *give* me. I have to go get it myself. I have to make time and stay motivated and learn and practice and take the risk and spend the money to reach my goal.

So since this post is a bit of a letdown (can’t really wrap up a passing CFII knowledge test score, can you?), I’ve decided to speak for the General Aviation industry and tell you what GA wants under *it’s* aviation Christmas tree: donations!

There are many worthy aviation non-profits, and what I think all of us in aviation would like is for each of the readers of this Blogging in Formation series post to do is find one that speaks to you, and give a little. Or a lot. Whatever you can. Here are some ideas:

Or simply join AOPA or EAA or the Ninety-Nines or Women in Aviation International or Whirly-Girls or NBAA if you’re not already a member.

And I’ll throw in one last thing: you may have noticed the many links to aviation products above. Most of those links (not all) are affiliate links, meaning Smart Flight Training gets a portion of each sale, at no extra cost to you. These links can help support Smart Flight Training, and can allow me to flight instruct more, and “work” less. That said, Smart Flight Training has, up to this point, made exactly zero dollars. And that’s perfectly fine. But if you choose to use the above affiliate links and purchase items that give Smart Flight Training a “cut,” I will donate every penny made for the month of December, 2013, to one of the above charities.

I’ll even let you choose the charity. If you purchase a product through one of the above links (you don’t have to buy the product linked to – just use the link to go to the site and purchase anything on that site), leave a comment on this post or send me a message through the “contact us” form, or even leave me a voicemail using the link on the right side of the page telling me what you bought and which charity above you want me to donate to. Whichever one gets the most “votes” will get the dollars.

I thought this was fitting, since this post goes up on “Giving Tuesday,” and also since Christmas (or the holiday of your choosing) should be about the giving, not about the buying.

I sincerely hope that you all have a great holiday, and that you get to spend time with your families (including your aviation family – I know I enjoy each month I get to spend virtually with my Blogging in Formation family and friends).

Tailwinds,
Andrew

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the other “Blogging in Formation” bloggers in the series:
Dec. 1: iFLYblog – Brent Owens
Dec. 2: Airplanista – Dan Pimentel
Dec. 3: Smart Flight Training – Andrew Hartley
Dec. 4: Flight to Success – Karlene Petitt
Dec. 5: House of Rapp – Ron Rapp
Dec. 6: Adventures of Cap’n Aux – Eric Auxier
Series eight runs from December 1 – 6, 2013

Andrew Hartley is a certificated flight instructor and commercial pilot in Columbus, Ohio. His favorite shape is the vicious circle. His least favorite is the death spiral. He’s very glad you’re here.