License to Learn

I am going to get this out in the open: this article is aviation themed. I know, you must be shocked. However, it is important that you realize that the ideas and content can be applied to any field in which you may work.

Training for your private pilot license is a lot of work.  You can read more about that process in my previous post Becoming a Pilot, from the ground up!

Now, let’s talk about life after you have finally obtained that precious passport-style PPL. Life is pretty darn exciting! If you are anything like me, you will want to take everybody you know up in the air and share your love of aviation (and the costs!) with them. First, it starts with some sightseeing tours. You show your friends and family how wonderful the city looks from above, or how beautiful the north is with its farms and lakes. You then decide to broaden your horizons and fly to airports to which you have never been. As wonderful as it is, the itch is still not scratched. Now, you are thinking of alternative ways to own/rent a plane that are more flexible than the school you rent from so that farther destinations and weekend trips can become a possibility. You start to think about getting that float or night rating, or stepping up to a faster aircraft. The only worry you have now is money. Some time has now passed since you took your final flight test with the Transport Canada examiner, although it seems like it was yesterday. You may still think your emergency procedures skills are just as sharp as they were, but if you have not made an ongoing effort to practice those skills they will certainly degrade. As with all professions, there are three sides to the aviation skill set: knowledge, experience, and application.

It is easy to stay on top of your knowledge. I personally receive many aviation newspapers and magazines each month in the mail. Picking up the operating handbook for your aircraft and giving it a read is easy and not time-consuming. I also receive weekly aviation tips and general information from my flight club in my email box.  Knowledge is shared because there is always something new to learn in aviation. Just yesterday, I was reading a COPA newspaper and I learned that water can take up to 45 minutes to separate from fuel. At no point in my previous training had I learned this and now, it will be something I think of when I am straining fuel during my pre-flight checks. That one fact could save me from experiencing some in-flight engine trouble one day. There are so many different pieces to the aviation puzzle and nobody can know all of them. This is why we have to continuously read, stay connected, and learn in our chosen field.

As it is said, experience is what you get AFTER you need it. Unfortunately for a pilot, this adage has some truth to it. While experience will increase a pilot’s confidence level,  it is actually less important than application. Application is more important because it is where we will see the greatest decline in skill over a given period of time unless it is given special attention. In fact, it may often be a pilot having a lot of experience that can make one less attuned to the necessity of skill application. We need to train our brains to deal with as many different, unusual situations as possible.  This can be done with actual flying as well as some visualization in your chair at home or work.  The more proficient we are and the more we train for these scenarios, the better off we will be if we do encounter something that goes awry. If we practice skill application regularly, in an emergency situation our brains and bodies will kick into autopilot and we won’t freeze in panic.

Keeping up with one’s knowledge, experience, and application are essential elements to being a safe aviator, but it is also really fun to keep learning new things about flying!