I borrowed the title for this blog from a chapter in a gliding book by the late Bill Scull. Bill tells how gliding loses a lot of people after they achieve their license – partly through lack of confidence but primarily because there is no longer an instructor providing direction and advice. It’s regrettably true in GA too. Bill’s solution was to encourage pilots to set a goal for every flight.
It works as a way of building confidence and getting value for money out of every flight. Modest goals might include – flying the circuit and final approach more precisely, flying a cross- country at a nice accurate height, polishing up those RT calls, getting in some cross-wind landing practice or flying cross-country in conditions which are safe and legal but less than gin-clear. A more demanding goal might be a land away at a new airfield, or a flight through controlled airspace.
The same concept can apply to a check-flight – something that often needs to be done after weeks away from flying due to our abysmal winter weather. Get value for money and pick the instructor’s brain. Take the opportunity to do something new, or brush up on a manoeuvre that you’ve not done for a while. What do I have in mind? A practice forced landing, experiment with the turn-backs (see last week’s blog), a bad weather circuit, some instrument flight or landing at a farm-strip.
Instructors are always on hand to offer advice and ideas!