You know why learning to fly is so great? It’s okay; there isn’t really just one answer to that question. Honestly, my answer to that question probably changes on a daily basis. Today though, the best thing about learning to fly is the resultant impact that the process has on your brain.

I’m in the process of a major revision to audio reviews for the Private certificate and Instrument rating here at Gleim. As I’m going through the existing files and making my changes and moving things around, I’m struck, once again, by how much raw information pilot applicants really need to know. In the case of this project, I am building scripts primarily around preparation for the FAA knowledge tests. As is usually the case though, I find myself wandering down rabbit trail after rabbit trail in search of the “end” of a given topic. After some very interesting and satisfying self-lecturing, I have to remove myself from the material and realize that I’ve gone way too far down a road that is well beyond my intended scope. There really is so much information there. It’s all important to various degrees, but in pilot training, it is important to not get bogged down in minutia to the extent that we miss the core knowledge we’re trying to convey.

I remember knowing nothing about aviation – just looking up in the sky and thinking “wow, how does that even work!?!” Now, I’m teaching other people how it works. A good pilot understands that learning doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) stop when the pilot certificate is issued. That’s really the point where you can get out there and add some practicality to all that academic stuff some over-excited CFI (finger pointed at self) poured into your brain. I’m still learning, and, luckily, there are some great teachers out there. The best of them admit they are still learning too, and that’s really the way it should be. You stop learning in aviation and you start forgetting.

Science hasn’t confirmed it yet, but I feel confident that soon we will be able to identify the aviation lobe of the brain. Only pilots will have one. It will be full of equations and acronyms and weather charts and checklists, but the resource it will hold in the greatest abundance is a passion for learning, improving oneself, and grabbing the controls of a flying machine and ripping off into the sky – smiling all the way.

In May, I had the good pleasure of being a part of a great collaboration of the aviation community. It was the Pilot Training Reform Symposium, conducted by SAFE, the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators. Over the course of two days in Atlanta, we covered everything from growing the pilot population to improving the flight instructor corps to updating/overhauling FAA training/testing standards. 

The impact of the symposium was felt immediately as free pilot training syllabi (the lack of which was identified as a serious problem in our current training environment) started flooding to the Internet. HD videos of every panel presentation is now available on Vimeo, and a preliminary report of symposium outcomes and action items is also online. 

So I was there. I went; I saw; I ran my face. What was different than usual you ask? People listened! I went on behalf of Gleim Publications, and I spoke on the need to modernize the FAA knowledge test. You can watch my panel presentation here. Since you obviously care about watching me (laughs), you can fast-forward to about 6:19.

All in all, I think the event was a great success. We'll have to wait and see what renders long term. I think our personal company interests were furthered, and no one booed me offstage. We're gonna put that in the "win" column. In the iconic words of Hannibal from A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together."