Flight Training - May 2015 - 22

AROUND THE PATCH

By Jill W. Tallman

GOOD INTENTIONS

WHEN LIFE GETS IN THE WAY OF FLYING

W

hat's your aviation goal for 2015?
It came to me as I was writing this question on Twitter that
I hadn't set a goal for myself. So I did, right then and there:
fly 100 hours. I had logged 50 hours in 2013 and about 60 in
2014. One hundred hours equates to about two hours per week. That's
doable, right? One $100 hamburger trip or two sessions in the pattern.
Except that as I write this, I'm already
behind schedule. Much like the person
who vows to start a diet on January 1 and
eats an ice cream sundae that very day, I'm
off to a bad start. It was January 28 before
I was able to log hour one in 2015.
Weather is partially to blame. We're still
in the clutches of winter here in the midAtlantic. Student pilot Katrina Morisen
wrote this prayer on Facebook:
Dear Lord,
In the name of VFR pilots everywhere,
please give us good weather on days we
don't have to work and bad weather on
days we do, so we won't miss the sky so
much? Thank you,
VFR pilots everywhere.
I can relate. Even an instrument-rated
pilot needs to carefully consider freezing
levels at this time of year, especially when
she flies a 1960s-era airplane that doesn't
have anti-icing equipment.
Cold temperatures complicate matters further. I pulled out the airplane on

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January 18 to discover a dead battery. My
airplane hangar doesn't have electrical
power, so I can't leave the battery on a
trickle charger when I'm not flying it.
Lesson learned: Remove battery, take
home, place on trickle charger.
My hangar neighbor John is a good role
model. We generally cross paths on Saturday mornings, and I can set my watch by
when he arrives to pull out his Bonanza.
John flies each weekend, and if weeks go
by and he doesn't see me, he chides me.
"The airplane needs to fly," he says. He's
right, of course.
STUCK ON THE GROUND?
If you're not flying as much as you would
like, make use of your time on the ground
and take an Air Safety Institute quiz or
online course, or view a safety video or a
webinar. You'll find topics suitable for all
types of pilots. www.aopa.org/education

It cheers and inspires me, however, to
read and hear about others' goals for the
coming year. Casey Hansen, who owns a
Piper Tri-Pacer and blogs about it online
(www.weownanairplane.com), says he
wants to fly regularly, attend at least five
fly-ins, give more airplane rides, and
introduce his infant son Flynn to aviation by bringing him to the airport,
as a start.
Steve Thorne said he has many flying
goals for 2015, but "near the top of the list
is to get my instrument rating." Thorne
creates immersive, instructional aviation
YouTube videos under the handle Flight
Chops (www.youtube.com/FlightChops),
and if you happen to follow his channel,
he assures you that he plans to share his
journey to the IFR ticket-just as he has
done with his tailwheel flying and many
other experiences.
Rose Dorcey successfully passed the
commercial certificate knowledge test in
December and said she planned to start
learning the maneuvers in 2015. And John
L. Conway IV said he was hoping to log
26 hours. "It would be the most I've flown
since training if I do," he said.
Large or small, dead serious or humorous-like the airline pilot who said he
hopes he'll fly 100 hours instead of the
usual 600 to 800-goals keep us motivated to get out there, which helps to
keep us proficient and safe. And that
helps us to enjoy flying even more. I'll
try to keep that in mind the next time
I'm tempted to let another week slide by
without climbing into the cockpit.
Email Technical Editor Jill Tallman at jill.tallman@
aopa.org; Twitter: @jtallman1959.
http://www.weownanairplane.com http://www.youtube.com/FlightChops http://www.aopa.org/education http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG
Flight Training - May 2015

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