AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2021 - 24

FLYING LIFE
Put me in, coach
The sport that taught me how to fly
BY NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER
WHEN I FIRST signed up to coach my 9-year-old's softball team, I did
it for one reason: I grew up loving the sport and was lucky enough
to play all the way through college. So, I wanted to make sure my
daughter and her friends got the same experience. I wasn't going
to be one of those coaches who only cared about winning. I wanted
to make sure these girls knew that sports are a blast. As a side note,
winning is fun, so if we could find a way to have a lot of fun and
also win, then that was my goal for the season.
Because my daughter is left-handed and blessed with an
extraordinarily strong will (God help me!), I knew pitching
would be a good fit for her, so we started sending her for lessons
once or twice a week to get ready for the season. But that
pitching coach was so tough and demanding that I wondered if
we were doing the right thing. Ellie is only 9 years old, and this
coach is pushing for 100-percent focus every pitch, telling her
I remember that I am not coaching a softball team.
I am coaching the next generation's doctors and
pilots, mothers and leaders.
she can do better, telling her to try harder. Is it too much? Will
this sort of atmosphere suck all the life out of the sport for her?
That concern resurfaced in my mind last week, when I was
conducting an instrument checkride in the Nashville, Tennessee,
area and flew over a softball complex on our way to shoot the
RNAV Runway 1 approach into Lebanon (M54). When the applicant
broke out of " the clouds " at minimums, we were over a
highway with semi-trucks passing what felt like two feet underneath
us, then past a displaced threshold for a landing. He did a
fantastic job and managed to fly a perfect glideslope all the way
to touchdown. That approach required 100-percent focus if it
was to be done safely. There was no room for a lapse in attention.
Maybe what we're asking Ellie to do is not so bad after all,
because at some point, she's going to need that ability to focus
on her goals, whether she's shooting an instrument approach
to minimums or making a case for her client in a courtroom or
teaching a classroom full of 30 rowdy kindergartners. I wonder
just how much of what I learned down on that ball field prepared
me for what I do every day in an airplane.
24
AOPA PILOT / August 2021
Walking out on the field for my daughter's first practice, I
knew in an instant that my goals for the season had been shortsighted.
Feeling the red infield dust on my skin, the stitched seam
of the ball on my fingertips, surrounded by a team of hopeful
young women-well, that felt like coming home. Suddenly, the
clock was rolled back and I was out there with my own teammates
again, putting in long hours to hone our hitting skills so
we could compete in the next tournament. What kind of pilot
would I be if we hadn't walked off the field victorious? Would
I have known that consistent hard work pays off when dealing
with the challenge of airline pilot training? Or what if I had never
learned that when you strike out, you have to forget about it and
move on so you can get a hit the next time? Would I have bounced
back after I failed that checkride and be working as a designated
examiner today?
Maybe it wasn't a ball field for you; maybe it was a stage and
a part in the school production or learning to play the drums so
you could play in the church band. Or was it a body shop job that
gave you the confidence to understand how mechanical things
work? Whatever it was, I'm guessing you wouldn't be flying airplanes
without those experiences that molded you and made
you stronger.
Now I have a new goal when I'm out there coaching the sport
that shaped so much of who I have become: I remember that I am
not coaching a softball team. I am coaching the next generation's
doctors and pilots, mothers and leaders. So, when I ask my second
baseman to slide into home to get under a tag and she backs
off because she's scared it will hurt, I'm going to encourage her
to keep trying until she gets past that fear. And when my center
fielder isn't strong enough to throw the ball all the way home, I'm
going to make her keep working until one day she can throw out a
runner with accuracy. Ellie and her pitching coach have had some
success, by the way. She struck out eight batters at last weekend's
tournament and walked off the field with a newly found confidence.
Will that confidence
carry her through pilot training
one day and into a NASA
spacecraft bound for new
horizons? Well, this mama
can continue to dream....
NATALIE BINGHAM
HOOVER is a CFI, CFII,
and multiengine instructor
with more than 3,000 hours
of dual given.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2021

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