As a pilot, I’ve always been a pretty pragmatic type, and I’ve always tried to find the most efficient way to get something done without sacrificing safety and without spending too much. “Pragmatic” and “cheap” aren’t synonyms, but let’s face it: they’re closely related.
Aside from money, the most important thing to a pilot is time, right? Well, if I can take the liberty of disagreeing with the idea I just floated, this is both true and not so true. I mean, if we didn’t care about how long something took to do, like to go from Connecticut to South Carolina, we’d probably drive. We fly because it saves a ton of time. At least that’s part of the attraction. The fact that flying is a blast, well, that’s another big piece of the puzzle. And since time flies when we’re having fun—a saying I never realized is so perfect for what we do—then the time we spend flying seems like a lot less time than it really is.
But it’s not that easy. We pilots invest a lot of time in what we do, and not just the flying, but the hangar flying, the airplane porn, the diving into the Wikipedia rabbit holes, the flight planning for trips we’re only dreaming of taking. And then there are the people who build their own airplanes, mostly from kits these days, but if you’ve ever built a kit plane, well, you know it’s not mean feat. And the hours spent add up to the point that they quickly become weeks and then years. The quoted number of hours kit makers claim that it will take to build their plane tend to be optimistic, to say the least. To be fair, many kitplane makers acknowledge this by adding caveats about how aptitude and experience matter in the build-time estimate. Regardless, when a builder gets halfway into a project (how to determine percentage completed of any given project being a humorous topic in itself), they’re in it for the duration.
The same isn’t always true for flying, however. AOPA’s Rusty Pilot program is one of the most successful initiatives the organization has ever run, and that’s not because rusty pilots are a rarity. Other things just get in the way. Mostly, it’s life, jobs, kids, financial challenges and relationship complications. After letting flying slip for awhile, it’s all too easy to let it fade completely away.
Well, almost completely. One truth the program has uncovered is that it takes very little, often only a single flight, to reignite that passion. And if there’s more time, more freedom and more support for the flying, then flying will happen.
Which is good, because we have a limited time on this earth. It makes sense to me, and to lots of you, too, to spend of it gazing down on the world from above and watching the earth turn and the days turn into sunsets and logbook remembrances. And all of that adds up without exception to time well spent.
Thanks, Kate
A quick note on a change at Plane & Pilot. Today is the last day here for associate editor, Kate O’Connor. A talented pilot and writer, Kate has, in the short time she’s been at Plane & Pilot, played a vital role in helping make our brand the success it has become, helping us grow in every direction. So I’d like to take this moment from all of us here to wish Kate all the best in her new opportunity, which we’re happy to say, will continue to be in aviation journalism.
