10 Myths About Learning to Fly

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10 myths about learning to fly

Here are 10 myths that I hear frequently from folks that are interested in flying, but don’t think they can pursue it.

  1. expense of learning to flyI can’t afford it. I despise the word “can’t.” There is simply no such thing. If you really want it, you can find the way. It really comes down to choices. With a limited budget you must simply CHOOSE what things you spend your money on. Everyone reading this has a limited budget.

  2. pilot eyesightI have bad eyesight. It slays me how many people I talk to think you must have perfect uncorrected vision. It is true that it needs to be correctable to 20/40. I have terrible vision without glasses and I fly for a living just using old-fashioned contact lens. Lots of folks now get laser surgery, which seems to work great.

  3. too old to flyI’m too old. Hogwash! You are only as old as you think you are – a quote that is written on the internal structure of my airplane by my wife. I have taught plenty of people after retirement age. How will you really know unless you try? It will be pretty apparent early in the process if you have bitten off more than you can chew.

  4. you are never too young to start flyingI’m too young. Ok there are regulations that limit you from getting certain types of licenses, but you can take instruction at any age. I started at 14, too young to solo a powered plane by a full two years. Remember gliders allow you to be 14 to solo and 16 for the license so that’s a great option to get started early.

  5. getting an FAA medicalI’m not physically fit enough or I have health challenges. You don’t need to be a top athlete, or even an athlete at all. The medical requirements for a Private Pilot are very reasonable. Even if you don’t meet those requirements, you may be eligible for a waiver. Sport Pilot doesn’t even require a medical exam.

    Continue reading →

This is your brain on FLYING!

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brain on flying
Many of your will remember the anti-narcotics campaign launched in the late 1980s (If you haven’t seen it, click this link - it’s a classic).

This popular ad really reminds me of how my brain seems to change when I’m under the influence of flying.

Not sure how this happens, but when I fly there is a tangible shift in the gray matter. I get much more focused and all of life’s silly stresses just melt away. Also my senses seem to sharpen; my ability to take in information and process it just gets better.

Why?
Sorry folks, no real science here, but I will offer up a couple of commonsense conclusions on what may be causing this altered-state in my melon.

So this whole thing maybe the result of “going on stage.” Flying is serious stuff and although I’m all about having fun, there is built-in playback-loop in my head that says, “Hey dummy, you’re in an airplane, don’t be an idiot!”

Perhaps it’s just the pure excitement, I’ll call it “a kid-like state of euphoria” from knowing I am doing something super-fun. 

I have noticed it more in my older age, which makes sense as I fly a lot less and so each flight is more thrilling and I’m not as bullet-proof in an airplane as I was in my 20s.

It’s not anxiety or nervous tension, but rather the cerebral equivalent of a tightened muscle, ready to spring into action at any moment.

I can’t say every flight is this way. Many of my professional flights are very sedate. I guess that’s a good sign, at least for the passengers.

So whatever it is that makes my brain focus like a one-armed alligator wrestler, it actually feels good at the same time; a kind of “good stress” that doesn’t leave me drained, but rather elated.

I’m sure there are other endeavors that create this same mental sensation, but flying is my drug of choice.

Just say ‘YES’ to flying!

by Brent Owens and the Partnership for Getting Your Butt in an Airplane
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What would I buy…Monocoupe

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Monocoupe

What would I buy? Monocoupe

This is the fifth installment in a series of articles based on a hypothetical set of airplane ownership criteria. Note: This information is strictly the opinion of the author. Your mileage may vary. 

So for this one I reached deep into my eccentric tastes to produce an example of how I could easily liberate $50,000.00

Ok, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I have eclectic airplane tastes with a strong affinity for the classics. Sorry it’s my money and its a free country.

The Monocoupe is a very unique, yet famous, sport aircraft from the 1930s that actually shares its lineage with the Luscombe. Both were the spawned from the brain of Don Luscombe and the Monocoupe is the progenitor of my beloved $20K hypothetical purchase from installment #2.

The history of these aircraft is very interesting, but I will focus more on my “purchasing” decision.

Beyond the normal cool factor of an airplane of heritage, it is also a taildragger, a radial engine taildragger at that – big points in my view.

Oh the lure of a grass runway: One of GA’s Best Kept Secrets

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sod runwayOne my favorite things to do is land on a nice grass runway. There is something about it that almost makes it seem like a guilty pleasure.

No TSA, no metal detectors, no sequestration-impacted-control-towers, and rarely any fences, and certainly no barbed wire! It is flying in the most organic sense of the word.

My first grass airport landing with in El Reno, OK. at Gibson Aviation. There’s a famous cylinder repair facility there and they have a runway right outside of their shop – as it should be. I had 137 hours in my logbook. My vessel was the veritable C-152 and I remember it well. Most of all I remember thinking how cool it was to fly an airplane like the pioneers did it so long ago.

The reality is grass runways have several advantages over their paved counterparts.
  • Less wear on tires and brakes
  • Directional control is easier
  • Touch down are smoother
  • Stopping distances are shorter
  • It’s cool! Eddie Richenbacker and the Red Baron did it that way
  • If its an omnidirectional field you don’t have to mess with those pesky crosswinds
grass strip

my rv loves the grass

Continue reading →

7 Habits of Highly Effective Aviators

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7 Habits of Highly Effective Aviators
superman fly likeHabit 1 – Seeks perfection. I believe this is a key trait and it should not be limited to the professional. If you always strive to be the best, you’ll need to know how to accept coming up short without being frustrated. If you fall down you just dust yourself off and get back on the horse. 

 

promoting aviationHabit 2 – Is an ambassador. Successful pilots are advocates for aviation. They look at it from a team perspective. We all win or lose together in this small community. With aviation under attack it is never more important than to be lobbying for our cause.

 

crystal ballHabit 3 – Always thinking ahead. This is just good airmanship, but knowing how to see the way forward is hugely important. At a macro level this involves seeing where you’ll be in 10 years as an aviator or at the micro level, it’s staying ahead of the airplane in a given maneuver or procedure. 

 

fonzHabit 4 – Doesn’t let the ego get out of control. As a pilot It’s good to have a healthy ego. This business of flying airplanes isn’t for the meek. But there are all kinds of problems associated with an over-inflated ego. It’s a balance that isn’t always easy to manage for some of us, but the best aviators have this dialed in.

 

safe flyingHabit 5 – Values safety and manages risk. Successful pilots must respect the need to be safe. Risk management is a large part of what we do as pilots, the good ones give it the appropriate amount of attention. The bad ones just create more statistics and make it hard for the rest of us. Continue reading →

Jet Jocks: How professional pilots can shun recreational aviation

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airline pilots

Ok, many of you may not be familiar with this curious phenomenon. Jet Jock is my pet name for professional pilots that not only don’t fly outside of their day job, they are actually repulsed by the idea.

I first encountered this species of aviator in my youth. The local airport was home base for a large corporate flight department. Their facilities were up on the North end of the field and never in all my years flying did I see any of those pilots. They must have jumped out of their corporate rocket ships and blazed a trail for the lake or the golf course.
 
I remember wondering why they wouldn’t come down and check out all the neat stuff we had going on at the FBO. 
 
Later in my career I ran into this again and found that it is pretty common. Common enough that those of us in my company that still fly GA actually stick together. 
 
That’s not to say that just because a pro pilot isn’t actively flying for pleasure doesn’t mean they don’t want too. Many can’t afford the extravagance, but would love to do it at the first opportunity.  Continue reading →

What General Aviation Needs: 8 not-so-easy solutions to GA’s woes

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General aviation solutions

What General Aviation Needs: 8 not-so-easy solutions to GA’s woes

When you look across the landscape of General Aviation it becomes apparent that there are some challenges. 

I took the liberty of writing down a short list of pain-points for you perusal (not in any specific order). 

1.  We need airplanes that are inexpensive to purchase and fly
In my opinion, this won’t happen until one key development is solidified – electric flight. If we can develop a 200 mph 4 seaters that can run on electrons, the cost of flying will go down exponentially. These electric birds also need to be less expensive to produce than our current dinosaur-burners.

2.  More accessibility
More and better access to airports and training facilities. Many airports are like fortresses. Plus the FBOs aren’t super-friendly so we have some work to do in that department. (related article here)
 
3.  Fewer restrictions
The whole user fee issue just makes my blood boil. How is it that our current fuel tax isn’t a user fee already? Why would do we need a standalone fee? It will be a huge waste of money, make our system less safe, and drive folks away from flying. (related article here)
Also no 3rd class medical. This is in work and I feel like this can have a really positive impact on GA. The less barriers for entry, the more folks participate – simple. Also we’ll retain more of our current population.  Continue reading →

FAASTeam Safety Seminar

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FAAST meetingLast weekend our local EAA and IAC Chapters hosted the annual joint safety seminar. We also have a FAASTeam representative there so we can give FAA Wings credit to whomever attends.

The last couple of years, the venue has been PrimeAero at Marysville airport here in Central Ohio. They are gracious hosts and let us use their heated hangar (it was a little chilly as Winter doesn’t want to give up to Spring yet).

By my count there were just under 50 people in attendance – not bad for a blustery day in this part of the world.

Speakers included IAC 34 President Dr. Jeff Granger, who provided an introduction to the International Aerobatic Club (IAC) and competition flying in general. It was a great talk and I always pick up a thing or two when I hear Jeff speak.

I was next up with a brief talk on Plan Continuation Bias, more on that topic in an upcoming post.

After me, was Gordon Penner. Gordon, is a Master CFI – Aerobatics and also a professional pilot, flying 747s for his day job. Gordon’s talks are always very informative and he delivers them in the perfect style for aviator – direct and to the point. His discussions on stall/spins and roll coupling are worth hearing (he has a webinar on EAA.org – link here). We are really lucky to have an aviation educator of his caliber in our local area!

Next was FAASTeam Representative, pilot, and AME, Dr. Robert Lewis. He gave a talk about aeromedical certification and also on hypoxia. Dr. Lewis also went on to host a thorough discussion on taildragger flying – one of my favorite topics.

All in all it was a great way to spend a cloudy, windy, cold day in Ohio and I came away smarter than before – which is always a plus.

by Brent Owens

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Aviation Under Attack

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aviation under attack
Aviation Under Attack
I try to shy away from negative subjects in my attempts to promote aviation, but most readers of this blog are “big-boys and girls” and can handle a healthy dose of reality from time to time.
The aviation news outlets have been all abuzz with various sorts of morbid announcements last week.

First up, the President put user fees back on the table. $100 per turbine operation. This may seem benign to you; those turbine guys can afford it right? 

The problem with user fees is that any money extorted, I mean collected, will almost certainly be absorbed by the bureaucracy needed to be put into place to collect it. Which doesn’t solve any budgetary issues and thus the monster will need to continue to be fed a larger diet of our cash. 
 
Worse yet is the fact that once the camel gets his head in the tent, user fees will be soon upon our horizon for the reason stated above.
 
The hypocrisy of all this is we already have a user fee. It’s the tax we pay on our aviation fuels. We have even agreed as an industry to accept a higher fuel tax, but that’s apparently not good enough! (See my related article here)
 
The other bit of bad new is the $26M verdict against Lycoming in a Washington State court. The case articles in the news are much more explanatory, but I offer up that Lycoming’s engine didn’t contribute to the VFR into IMC CFIT accident, but those facts didn’t keep the jury from employing their own form of wealth redistribution. Robin Hood would be proud. It does appear the Lycoming plans to appeal – I would hope so! Now my $35,000.00 4-cylinder will cost me $50,000.00 in the not-so-distant-future. Lycoming should really consider a getting a better legal team. 
Finally, we have the NTSB nipping at our heels. They put out a call to action last month with their declaration that we bug smashers aren’t safe enough and we are going to do something about it. The “Safety Alerts”, all four of them, were benign enough, but the point that we should all be taking away is that they mean business. They want the accident rates to drop, not go up and not plateau. Our airliner brethren had a good run recently so we are in the  spotlight. (See my related article here)
 
So I don’t think it is overly dramatic to claim General Aviation under attack.
 
What can we do about it? 
User Fees are political so we need to rally our political will and not wait around on the inevitable. Write your elected representative. Join an alphabet group, even if they piss you off from time to time.
 
As for the specter of liability in the face of our overly litigious society – I have nothing. The folks that make their living off the system are the same clan making the laws. It’s a great gig if you can get it, but it won’t take many more generations of this to ruin us, if our government money printing machine doesn’t do it first (that’s another topic for another blog).
 
There, I feel better getting that off my chest. 
 
Fly now, while you can!
 
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How To Be a Pilot – FREE Poster (Share this with your non-flying friends)

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how to be a pilot poster

How To Be a Pilot – FREE Poster (Share this with your non-flying friends)

As another tool to help aspiring aviators,  I have developed a poster that represents a simplified process for how to get licensed as a Private Pilot. It’s generic in nature, but hopefully it will add value to someone that is out on the fringe and wondering how to be a pilot.

Since most of you visiting this site are already licensed, may I suggest that you download the poster and pass it along to anyone you know that may be remotely interested in our great avocation.

Or better yet, send them directly to this website and have them download it and sign up for the weekly newsletter – can’t hurt right?

It’s all about promoting aviation and there are enough detractors out there that every little bit helps.

If you are unsure of someone that could use it, take advantage of the social media buttons below to share this with your friends, family, and acquiantances. You never know who is thinking hard about flying and just needs a little nudge.

All you have to do to get the full size .pdf is go to the Aviation Resources page and scroll down to the link. It will have you sign up for the weekly newsletter, but you can unsubscribe at any time, or use this direct link here.

The best part is the How To Be a Pilot poster is totally free.

how to be a pilot instructions

by Brent Owens

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