Way of the Wing

#pilotlife #flying #mastery The best pilots work on improving themselves, not proving themselves. ✈️

“I’m still learning. It’s a never ending process.” New Rich Stowell Podcast. Great stick and rudder discussion from a master instructor who has over 35,000 spins in 240 something single-engine airplane types. Forty years of flight instruction yields some valuable insights: creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/sp… Questions include which control turns an airplane? What would you change in flight instruction? What have you learned about flight instruction from learning martial arts? “The checkride is an event. Learning to fly is journey.” “The learning is in the struggle.” You can go to RichStowell.com and download a whole bunch of great stuff for free. Lot of actionable stuff to read on a rainy day.

#perpetualpursuit #flying #work I’m going to keep working on flying. It is work. It is a job. I may never really get it right. But I do enjoy it so. #Hemingway said it better. But his job was writing. Quoted in Hemingway’s In Our Time: The Biography of a Book, by Michael Reynolds, 1995.

“Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect praise or reward.” ~ Ajahn Chah The picture is AI generated, because I don’t have a Pilot of the Month coffee cup! And what awards I have received over the years, I’ve (mostly) thrown away. #Flying well is the reward.

#flying #safety #humanfactors #B737 A lot to think about here. Take the time to read, becasue sometimes taking your time will save your life: nytimes.com/interactive/20…

“Mastery is the best goal because the rich can't buy it, the impatient can't rush it, the privileged can't inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.” Derek Sivers, How to Live​​, 2021.

Any advice on flying to the Moon?

#studentpilot #perpetualpursuit #flying “Despite my level of pilot certificates, I consider myself a 47-year student pilot. There is always more to learn.” Sabrina Kipp, AOPA Pilot magazine March 2024. aopa.org/news-and-media…

“I hate it if someone calls me a thrillseeker or an adrenaline junkie because I am not. I like the whole planning.” Felix Baumgartner, before his record-breaking 2012 skydive from the edge of space. theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct…

#perpetualpursuit #flying #testpilot Looking back on 6000 hours, and, “humbly forward, thinking how much more there is to learn.” avbrief.com/six-thousand

#flying #safety #riskmanagement “The fundamental thing is you have to figure out an alternative to your problem and be willing to give up on a goal.” John King. In a great article about 50 years of teaching flying to more people than anyone else ever. ainonline.com/aviation-news/…

“A year from now, you will wish you had started today.” Karen Lamb

“For me, the least appealing side of BASE jumping is the fact that it is dangerous and scary. I hate the feeling of standing on a mountain and being super scared. It’s not about the fear or the danger or the risk. It’s about the love of flying.” ~ Amber Forte, currently ranked the #1 female wingsuiter in the world and holder of the world record for the fastest female in a wingsuit. In the amazing new documentary movie Fly, 2024. #wingsuit #flying #risk

“As we took to the skies it seemed the aircraft was almost an extension of his body, carving its way over the water and through the air as if it already knew what inputs came next.” Niki Britton, describing Aaron Singer fly a seaplane over San Francisco. AOPA Pilot magazine, October 2024. It's what good flying looks and feels like. #flying #onewith #seaplane #AOPA

“I definitely don't want to die doing what I love. But I want to live doing what I love.” Eric Tucker, in the amazing video short 26,000 Days. #flying #viewfromthecockpit #aerobatics #tailwheel vimeo.com/925195981

Buddhist teacher @JackKornfield on #Paragliding: “Most people have these dreams once in a while, if you’re lucky, a dream of flying. Or maybe in your meditation, you have the sense of not being limited to your body. And this is the closest thing that I know because it’s absolutely silent, and you’re floating there. It’s quite fantastic.” innerairmanship.com/blog/2024/07/1… #flying #zen #onewiththewing @tferriss