BalloonLife,May1999

12

Could you fly just a little better?

CritiquingYourself

by Jim Trusty

Ihave never quite figured out why some-
onemust be on board with you in order for
you tomake mistakeswhen youare fly-
ing.Whycan’tyoumakejustasmany
boo-boos by yourself and not let theworld
know how badyoureallyareatflying?
Whycan’tyoucarryonaconversation
withyourselfandtellyourselfwhena
mistake is beingmade andthen let your-
self knowhow tocorrectthatparticular
maneuver?
Areyouoneofthosepeoplewho
thinks an instructor knows everything and
that you know absolutely nothing? Well,
it’snottrue.Andyouheardthisfroma
former NationalFlightInstructorof the
Year, no less. The very best person in the
worldtocatchandcorrectthemistakes
you are makinginflyingisyou. Noone
knows better than you why you are doing
something,andnoone hasmore control
overmakingyoustopdoingsomething
that at best is goofy and at worst is unsafe.
No one!
Every single time you standin a bal-
loon, teachyourself something. Improve
onsomethingthatyoualreadydowell.
Incorporate something you reador heard
and see if you are going to be comfortable
with it. Do lots of this stuff on the ground
and it will be safer and cheaper, too. Talk
toyourself.People alreadythinkyou’re
nuts anywayfor flyinga balloon, so con-
firm their deepest suspicions and let them
see youcarrying ona conversation while
simulatingflyingaballoon.Atleastif
theytakeyouaway,youwillbe among
friends.
As a teacher turned flight instructor,
Iaminaconstantstateofchangewith
everythingIuse toturnoutgreatpilots.

The joke at my airport is that you can spot
a Jim Trusty student by the amount of
paperwork they are carrying. We re-do
everything from flight plans, weather
forms, and information packets to the way
we fly the airplane and teach the maneu-
vers. Every article I read, every video I
watch, and every pilot I listen to makes an
impact on how I teach. If it can be proved
to meby trial and error that something can
bedone quicker, easier, orsafer, then Iam
on board and ready to learn how best to
pass it on to my eager students.

tions of ourchosen profession… the good
feelingthatcomesoveryouwhenyou
impress others with yourlevel of informa-
tionandskill.Orshouldthisbeexactly
what we are supposedtobe doingall the
time?Gettingbetterwithageandjust
plain keeping up.
If youwould just think backto how
little skill and training was required when
some of the greatest contributors toavia-
tion wereliving and flying, it is absolutely
scary. Ifsome ofthese guys wereflying
today, theywouldbe light yearsbehind.
Wellactually,a lot of themstillflyon a
regularbasis and a lot don’t. Thosethat fly
followthosesuggestionswehavebeen
talking about, and they are as great within
the parameters of today’s regulations and
skill requirements as they were whenwe
didn’t have any. They actually care about
howtheyfly,andtheyareconstantly
strivingtogetevenbetter.Youknow,
whether 95years old or 17 years old, the
same rules apply.
Ifitisuptoustolovewhatwedo
enoughtowanttokeepwhatskillswe
have alreadydevelopedhonedtoa razor
sharpedge. You probably know some of
those pilots whoare not as sharp as they
shouldbe,andyouwatchthemasthey
talka better flightthantheyfly.Thisis
perfectly all right because it is theirchoice.
I personally amglad theyhave chosento
groundthemselvesiftheyarenotpre-
paredtogivethatextra pushtogetand
stay current.
Onethingtheyhavedonethatwe
mentioned earlier isthat theyhave had a
talk with themselves, and they did not like
whattheyheard.Theytoldthemselves
whattheydidn’twanttohear,andthat

Every single time
you stand in a bal-
loon, teach yourself
something. Improve
on something that
you already do well.

You can do this yourself. Before you
takeyour next flight review, prepare your-
self bydoinga littleupdating. What has
changed or been improved since you were
last tested? Can youdo this new thing as
wellasyoudidthe old?Readit, under-
stand it, make diagrams, fly it, talk about
it, test it, ask questions, and make yourself
a written checklist for the particular item
andfollow itcloselyonyour test flight.
Surprisesomeoldflightinstructorby
doing something new, correct, and safe on
the first try.
Whatdowecallalloft hi s?
Recurrencytraining…respectforwhat
we do…followingtherulesandregula-

BalloonLife,May1999

14

was youare getting rusty andneed to
devote more time and energy to staying
current or spend even more time on the
ground.The choiceis always theirs to
make.
Better them than the FAA or some
other authority or even a local flight in-
structor having totellthem thatwhatthey
are doing does notmeettoday’s standards
and that in their opinion they are unsafe.
No one willever realize how hard itis for
an instructor to say somethinglike this to
ahero ofyesteryear. Andtruthfully, ifthis
momentever arrives, itisalmost irrevers-
ible because we know that they tried as
hard astheyknewhow onthe firstattempt
to impress whatever authority they were
involved with. If this happens because of
sickness or poor health, it is understand-
able because this will eventually happen
tous all. But if thisconditionof notbeing
able to meet the standards comes about
because of inactivityor a reluctance tofly
and stay current, then it is no one’s fault
but the pilot’s.
Did you ever try buddy flying? Go-
ingtobreakfasttogether, buildingaproject
together,discussing amagazinearticle
together, and actually flying together and
critiquing each other rather hard? Point-
ingoutmistakesandsuggestingremedies?
Demonstrating how your method is dif-
ferent, and thenboth ofyou admittingthat
it is possible for anyone to learn some-
thing from someone else if they have an
open mind and a need?
The greatthingaboutthisbusinessof
aviation is the openness of the informa-
tion that becomes available. Most of us
cannotwait to shareit with the world
when we find something new, either an
easier way to skin a cat, determine winds
aloft,fly amaneuver,oranything and
everything that remotely pertains to bal-
looning. Thank goodness for that. This
probably comes from the factthatmostof
uswouldn’t know thatto dowitha wadof
money ifweknewhow tochargefor
doing something better, safer, and brand
new. We wouldprobablyjustbuy another
balloon if we had any money to spend.
With the abundance of information,
probably over ahundredaviationpublica-
tionspublishedmonthly, AircraftOwners
and Pilot’sAssociation(AOPA),Balloon
Life,BalloonFederationofAmerica
(BFA), National Association ofFlight
Instructors(NAFI),ExperimentalAircraft

Association(EAA), and fifty other alpha-
bet organizations including theone we
love the most, the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration(FAA), weprobablyhave
more free current and advanced informa-
tionabout thiscraft of oursavailable to us
than any other profession in the world.
Then add all this to word of mouth since
I’ve neverseenor metapilotthatwouldn’t
tell youeverything theyknewonany
subject, including aviation. Have you?
With all this information at our fin-
gertips, how could we, as pilotsand avia-
tion enthusiasts,darelet ourselves get
behind the power curve?Arepriorities

itall back on the top of the heap. At least
the choice will always be ours to make.
Even if you decide tomorrow to take
advantage of the experience of the bal-
loonflightteachers, it’sstillgoing totake
some commitment on your part. Instruc-
tors can only do so much, and if they see
thatyou are not participatingin the learn-
ing process, they too will slack off.
Okay, we’ve covered a few ways to
get it all back together.Now it’s your
decision. Isitworththeeffortandexpense
togetback in the air and feelcomfortable
being there, or would you justrather stay
on the ground and remember when? Ei-
ther way, ifyou are takingthe time toread
thislittle article, you must have a spot in
your heart for ballooning, and for this I
commend you.
At onetimeyou wereoneofthe
700,000 pilotsnationwide out of a popu-
lationof 260,000,000 people. You were a
part of the l/20th of 1 % who knew how to
fly. You were that one person out of 375
who was a pilotin the United States. Yes,
incase you missed it, 99.8% of the popu-
lation of the United States of America
does not fly an aircraft.
Now you see why I have been trying
sohard to get you back in the cockpitand
current for your ratings and certificates.
When we lose just one pilot our of the
small amount that I have quoted to you,
we miss them. We know them by name.
One lasttime, as a fellow pilot, I ask
you to please get current by going flying
a littlemore often, readingaboutit a little
more often, andspendingjusta littlemore
time aroundballooning. If youdropoutof
aviation, I’m going to miss you.
I’ll see you at the launch site!
Always remember, pilots who don’t
fly have no advantage over people who
can’t fly. What’s your excuse?

Jim Trusty isa former NationalFlight
Instructor of the Year (1997), the first
ever Southern Region FAA Aviation Safety
Counselor of the Year (1995), holds the
“Master CFI” designation from the Na-
tional Association of Flight Instructors
(1998), and works daily as a full-time,
free-lance flight instructor at MQY in
Tennessee. He has been a contributing
writer for national publications since
1973. He welcomes your comments. You
can reach him at 103 Highland Drive, Old
Hickory, TN 37138-1617, or 615-758-8434.

Did you ever try
buddy flying? Going
to breakfast to-
gether,building a
project together, dis-
cussing a magazine
article together, and
actually flying to-
gether and critiqu-
ing each other rather
hard? Pointing out
mistakes and sug-
gesting remedies?

changing as we get older? Are we getting
complacent? Thinkwe knowitall?Im-
possible to improve on perfection? Flight
instructor? Magazine writer? balloonpi-
lot?
I don’tknow the answer towhywe
get behind, but I do know it is possible for
theinformationtopileupsohighthata
pilotjustrefusestotackle it,andthisis
sad. Some rulesdoholdtrue,though.If
you could ever fly well, you probably still
can with practice. If you couldn’t fly very
well whenyou quit, youhave notgotten
anybetterbynotflying,butyoucould
withstudy and practice.
This flying thing is pretty muchlike
everythingelse we doinlife. If we have
thedesire tobe goodatit, we will make
the necessary time to do whateverit takes.
By the same token, if it has slipped in our
priority list, it really makes it tough to get