Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Today was a resting and flight planning day for me. (Check out the new route home. It will probably change as we incorporate more information and invitations.) I hadn’t realized how tired I was from Sun n Fun until we got to Sam Briseno’s at the Flying Ten Airport. Sun n Fun was electric and exhausting, and it hit me fully after a good night’s sleep at Sam’s. Since I still hadn’t really figured out our flight route home, and since Sam invited us to stay over another day, Randy agreed to relax for the day instead of resuming our flight. His idea of relaxing was to get in his Carrera, climb to 10,000’ MSL (and remember, the field elevation at Sam’s is only 85’,) and then shut off his engine and deadstick into the airstrip. He’s going to describe it himself in a post, so I won’t say any more, other than to use it as a segue for something I think about frequently.

Even accomplished pilots will think twice before taking on the challenge of dead sticking into an airstrip from 10,000’. One of the principles in my motivational speaking is “Fly with people who stretch your wings.” When I developed that principle, I was thinking specifically of two good friends: Randy, and Dave Bonkowski, who flies a Thundergull E-LSA.

Whether you’re learning to fly a plane or “fly” somewhere in your career or in your life, I believe that you’ll never improve if you fly only with people who are at your own skill level, or who are not quite as good as you are. You also need to have people in your circle who cause you to stretch your wings…people who are farther along the route than you are. Their example pushes you forward…causes you to go a little farther each time, and do more than you think you can. When you have limited experience, they can also help define some flying boundaries – so that early flights are successful.

Randy and Dave help me stretch my wings in three ways:
1. They purposefully challenge me to go further than I think is possible.
They have different ways of pushing me, but neither will accept me saying “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that.” Because they push me to try more, I can confront some of my own beliefs about my limitations.
2. They make their thinking transparent.
Observing someone doing something has its limits. What really helps is understanding what’s going through their mind when they do something that you’re trying to learn: sharing their reasoning about their flying decisions. Otherwise, I can be watching what they do but not understanding why they are doing it.
3. They give me support and encouragement as I take on new challenges.
I am continually amazed – and grateful – for their patience with me, and their encouragement. It never flags.

The tricky part is that the more competent we become, the less comfortable it is to seek out others who stretch our wings. And for senior people with extensive experience and expertise it’s harder to find people who stretch you. But that doesn’t mean they’re not out there.

So – who do YOU fly with?