AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020 - 22

FLYING LIFE

Growing pains?

BY NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER

Why you should be stepping out of your comfort zone
"Do one thing every day that scares you."

-Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune columnist

Learning has always
been a slow, painful
process for NATALIE
BINGHAM HOOVER.
It took her at least
six lessons before
she mastered
holding procedures.

FOR MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND THIS YEAR, my husband
and I took the kids hiking up Sugarloaf Mountain-a
moderate trail that climbs 690 feet to its summit, which
looks out over the quaint Little Red River and surrounding countryside of Heber Springs, Arkansas. For
our 5-year-old son, Matthew, the steep climb and relative proximity to the edge of the slope was downright
terrifying. On the first day, he maintained a whiteknuckled grip on his father's hand, refusing to go off
trail or climb any rocks that were higher than eye level.
The second day saw less fear, and by the third and final
day of hiking, Matt was running up the trail and crawling out on the rocks to take advantage of every lookout.
While trying to catch my breath, I looked at his smiling
face and asked if he was having fun.
"Oh yeah, mom. It's really high and a little bit scary
and soooooo cool!" It was impossible not to notice the
new bit of swagger in his Batman tennis-shoed step.
In moments like these, I can't help but think
about flying and how one of the things I love is that
it constantly presents opportunities to grow out of
the self-made borders of our comfort zones. There's
only one little problem: leaving behind the safety
and security of something we're good at is, by nature,
uncomfortable. Remember the first time you flew the
traffic pattern and felt that overwhelming amount
of task saturation as you tried to hold altitude, perform a prelanding checklist, and make a call on the
radio? That's when the nagging voice of doubt starts
to pipe up. "This is too hard," it whispers. "Go back to
something easier." I've felt that way again and again
whenever I play the role of student pilot, like when I
got my first corporate gig and upgraded from a Piper
Seneca to a Beechcraft King Air 90, or during that
month of drinking information from a firehose when
training as a new first officer at a regional airline, and
again when I signed myself up for a six-day course for
my pilot-in-command type rating in the Beechjet 400.
Whether you're learning to fly the family's Piper
Cherokee or flying for a career and constantly upgrading to bigger, faster aircraft, you will have to step out of
your comfort zone from time to time. No matter the circumstances, I think we have all wondered if there might
be a way to make the growing pains hurt a little less.

22 | AOPA PILOT September 2020

As someone who loves a challenge (after I've mastered a new thing), I've come upon a few ways to make
the process a little more enjoyable. Here's the advice
I typically give my students, and try to take to heart
myself:
Accept that you won't be the best or even very
good at all. I know we pilots tend to be perfectionists
when it comes to our flying skills, but do you think
Steph Curry was draining three-point shots the first
time he ever had a ball in his hands? Cut yourself some
slack if you don't nail the captain's bars when learning short-field landings. Also don't forget, there's no
shame in a go-around.
Chair-fly and study. The airplane is a terrible
classroom. There's just too much going on for your
brain to successfully master several new skills at
once. Do yourself a favor and spend as much time on
the ground preparing as possible. It will, at the very
least, give you the confidence that comes from being
prepared.
Be patient with yourself, and remember that
you've mastered new things before. When the
voices start to tell you that you should retreat to your
comfort zone before the stress levels get too high, try to
recall the times you've successfully pushed the limits
before. We learn most new skills in baby steps, mastering one small building block at a time before adding
the next one. So, be kind to yourself during this process
and be proud of every accomplishment. Maybe you
didn't master holding procedures today, but did you
get better at maintaining altitude during that instrument approach?
Remember that stretching is good for you.
When we push our comfort zones, it gets easier to
do so in the future, so that growing and improving
becomes the habit rather than staying in the rut of our
current skills. Grab an instructor on the next windy
day and see if you can get better at crosswind landings. I can't promise you'll be very good at first, but I
can guarantee you'll be grateful for the new skill the
next time you get stuck up in gusty winds.
If none of these things convince you to take that
leap, just remember my 5-year-old hiking buddy on our
third day up the mountain. The climb can sometimes
be stressful and uncomfortable, but nothing beats the
view from the top.
AOPA
myaviation101.com

http://www.myaviation101.com

AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020