AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2017 - 22

FLYING LIFE

My greatest
flight instructor

BY NATALIE
BINGHAM HOOVER

The most important lessons aren't in a book

THE AUTHOR with

her father on her
first birthday.

more than 3,000
hours of dual
instruction.

22 | AOPA PILOT April 2017

"Oh nothing. Just trying to stay sharp." Looking back,
I wonder if he actually needed me to quiz him, or if he
just wanted to make sure his daughter saw him work
at studying, constantly striving to be a better pilot. He
wasn't that way just with aviation, though. You should
have seen him in the kitchen. He was always trying
new recipes, working on the perfect way to cook a
steak, mastering his omelet-making skills. He never
just cooked. He put his heart into every meal.
As a dad and as a husband, he was all in. For
Mother's Day, he bought Mom a baby grand piano just
because she mentioned she wanted to learn to play.
There was rarely a ballgame when I couldn't look over
and see Dad in the stands.

I still remember the first time I beat him at a game
of HORSE in the driveway. I was a high school sophomore. He was never one of those people who would
let a child win. He beat me year after year, never missing a shot on purpose. That day I beat him, I knew I
had won fair and square. He always played his best,
no matter what. He hated to lose.
Five years later we were sitting in the bleachers, watching my little brother play baseball. Dad
had recently received a tough cancer diagnosis. I can
clearly remember how he tried to comfort me. "You
know how I hate to lose, Nat. Don't worry. I won't
let this cancer beat me." Although the cancer would
finally take him home almost two years later, I do not
believe it beat my father. To his dying day, he was his
usual wholehearted self: still cooking, still going to
work (a desk job in the standards department after
he lost his medical).
So, when I started flying a year after he passed,
how could I do it any other way than wholeheartedly?
I make it my goal every year to add a feather to my aviation cap. In 2016, I took an aerobatics course to conquer
my nagging discomfort with stalls and spins. This year,
a glider rating is in the plans. I always admire other
pilots who aren't satisfied with being mediocre. One of
the captains I fly with on the Beechjet is our go-to guy
whenever we have a systems question. He once told
me he picks up the systems manual once a month and
rereads a chapter. It's not difficult, but he continually
strives to make himself better.
One of the new flight instructors I've had the
pleasure of working with frequently flies his own airplane just to keep his stick-and-rudder skills sharp.
Whenever one of his students cancels a lesson, you
will see Peter walking across the ramp, climbing in
his Grumman Tiger, heading out for a quick flight. I
admire that about him. I don't know where his aviation career will take him, but I have no doubt he will
be the very best at whatever he chooses to fly.
So now, when I'm subjecting myself to being
rolled upside down in an Aerobat so I can understand every possible outcome of a stall gone wrong,
I hope I'm getting it right. I'd like to think that I
am making Dad proud, that I am being the pilot he
taught me to be.
AOPA

STEVE JONES

NATALIE BINGHAM
HOOVER has given

THERE IS A PLAQUE HANGING in my closet next to a picture of my dad. It says, "My father taught me how to fly."
Dad flew KC-10s in the U.S. Air Force, then DC-10s for
FedEx. I never actually took a flight with him. He died
when I was 21, a year before I took my first flight lesson.
But 21 years of living with a man like my father taught
me more than a few lessons, and helped shape me into
the person I am today-into the pilot I am today.
If I had to describe Dad in one word, it would be
wholehearted. He never did anything halfway. I can
remember walking past my parents' bedroom at night
and Dad dragging me in. "Nat, come quiz me on these
DC-10 flashcards." I'd ask what he was studying for.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2017