How I learned To Fly and Something I Learned From Flying

 My introduction to Ann Pellegreno was in the 1980s. I found a copy of her first book, World Flight, which detailed her reenactment of the ill-fated Amelia Earhart attempt to fly a Lockheed Electra around the world in 1937. Ann flew her flight in 1967, 30 years later in an Electra, and threw a garland of flowers over Howland Island where Earhart was supposed to stop for refueling. The ceremony was conducted on the date and hour of Earhart's ETA at Howland.

Ann's story has been written up many times over the succeeding years. My most recent encounter prior to buying her latest book was through an article last June (2022) by Paul Berge:

https://www.avweb.com/insider/in-the-presence-of-greatness-with-no-presence-of-mind/

Naturally, once smitten, I had to have that book and am about halfway through at this writing. 

I wanted the book to give to a young woman who is just beginning her journey into aviation. She is a former Young Eagle who took the burning coal to heart and is now old enough to get started. She has excelled in high school and has taken entry level college courses, ironically graduating from her college courses a week before she will graduate from high school! There are the usual stumbling blocks: Money, available instructors and airplanes, but she'll make it through. Sporty's Pilot Shop, through its connection with EAA and the Young Eagle program, will provide free ground school material for her. What a great candidate and a great path to aviation, no matter how she may choose to pursue it.

Here's where it gets sticky.

The book describes in detail Ann's experience with her first instructor and it's not a pretty picture. I had hoped the account would be more positive; instead, what I read was a description of a Flight Instructor who should not have been a Flight Instructor. Indeed, he should have not been flying at all. The attitude was pure macho hero. Demonstrations of "we shouldn't be doing this, but..." abounded in the initial chapters. Ann only soloed when her first instructor was unavailable for some time and another instructor evaluated her performance.

I could relate. I recall flying with a young woman over 40 years ago who had been strung out by her first instructor. In two lessons she soloed confidently, not because I was such a great teacher but because she needed someone who could communicate with her more effectively (and, perhaps, a more confident instructor). She could fly the airplane, she just didn't have the assurance to do so. I wonder sometimes what she may have done later.

SO I'm on the fence about giving this book to my Young Eagle friend. Perhaps not at the very beginning ... maybe after she is further along in her training. The more I think about it, that may be the time.

If you're interested in the Ann Pellegreno story, do an internet search and try her books. The Sky and I is available from:

www.specialbooks.com

Now we get to "Something I learned from flying":

Dave Nielsen lived down the mountain in a holler near a cave that is famous among some as a haven for bats. Naturally, we called him Bat Cave Dave.

Dave didn't have a lot of money, he wasn't famous, but he had a big, big heart. He built and flew a Kitfox and when he showed up at the north end of Johnson Field in Hendersonville NC with a loaf of bread and a pack of bologna, he started a weekly gathering that has endured to this day. The North End Gang sort of melded into the Fair Weather Flyers and we meet every Wednesday at the airport when it's warm and at other local, indoor spots when it's cold. Dave flew west in January 2016, not long after I moved back home to the mountains, so I hardly knew him but I think of him often. It occurs to me that Dave's spirit runs through all of us who love flying and love to gather with fellow flyers. Some of us came along earlier than others, but the essential thrill of personal accomplishment is still there and needs to be recognized. 

I didn't renew my Flight Instructor certificate when it came due. There is still a part of me that would like to experience the very real pleasure of watching the lights come on inside a student's head when a rectangular pattern is flown to perfection or a sight picture over the nose leads to a perfect landing. In the eyes of the FAA I'm afraid I'm a dinosaur. They're more interested in an institutional approach to flight instruction with its impossible acronyms and adherence to boxes needing to be checked off .. in order, thank you. Rather than being adjudged a loose cannon, I quit. But I won't quit.

Student pilots (we're forever learning) and experienced pilots alike can use a nudge occasionally. I prefer the less formal dialogue now that I'm getting the hang of being out of the "profession". There's absolutely nothing wrong with a qualified pilot passing along some helpful knowledge and I'll do that. I just won't be able to sign anyone off as a Flight Instructor.

And so we get to the most valuable lesson I've learned: never stop learning. That includes learning flying, learning your airplane and learning how to communicate with other people. It may be a rather narrow field of interest to some, but it's not; it's just a tight squeeze into a vast world of opportunity. As an internet friend opines: 

"A mile of road will take you a mile.

A mile of runway can take you anywhere."