Check out their line of headsets, camera cables, and LED lighting today!

All of us have reasons that we love airplanes and flying.  Maybe it was a parent or other relative that passed their love of aviation on to you.  Or maybe you just lived near an airport and were fascinated by the amazing machines that defied gravity to venture to all corners of the earth.

Or maybe you are just the type of person that likes to take on challenging things, because flying can be a very challenging thing.  Like anything it will come more naturally to some people than others, but there are challenges to be found in aviation no matter how good you are.

One area that often gets overlooked when it comes to challenging ourselves in aviation is mission planning.  Don’t worry, I’m not talking about planning a simple cross country flight, though doing that right is incredibly important.

What I am talking about is planning something challenging and fun.  In my case it was planning an 8 ship formation for my squadron to execute.  Let me be very clear up front that I had a ton of help throughout this planning, and that it never would have gone as well as it did without the help of at least half a dozen other people.

It was probably the best learning experience of my relatively short career because it forced me to get in the books to find answers, and it forced me to seek out those who are more experienced because they know about things that I have never even considered.  For at least a week solid I was sitting in the mission planning room making plans and changing them over and over to come up with a mission that would be effective and safe.

To be totally honest there were days that I wished I could have quit and given it over to someone else, but looking back I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  I was pushed to my limits and times and I am better off for it.  I gained such a better understanding of what planning something like this entails.  I am a better aviator because of it.

That is really what I am getting at here.  Plan something big.  Do something big.  Planning a formation flight would be incredibly awesome.  If you have questions about where to start talk to someone like Brent Owens, the creator of this page.

Formation flight can be a challenging and exhilarating experience, but is not something to be done without the right planning.

Whatever you choose to do continue to challenge yourself because it is only as we challenge ourselves that we can truly experience the full wonder of aviation.

I wrote a detailed article about the formation flight itself on my personal blog, if you care to read more please check out the link below:

http://www.aviationguy.com/2015/02/18/lessons-learned-planning-and-executing-an-8-ship-formation/

I hope you continue to challenge yourself in life, and in flying!

-David Lynn

VISIT OUR SPONSOR for Training DVD's, affordable headsets, cable adapters, headset parts, LED strobes and lights, and more! They cover ALL EXPENSES for iFLYblog.com to keep it coming FREE to you FOREVER!

Subscribe to the iFlyBLOG Mailing List to get the latest blog posts and news to your E-Mail instantly! PLUS TWO FREE eBooks!