I was recently going through my Bi-Annual Flight Review as required by the FAA to keep my pilot license current. When I learned to fly in 1999, our plane options were limited. Actually, we had a variety of old Cessna 152’s, 172’s and 182’s but they were in such poor condition they were typically in maintenance so it made it difficult to fly. Fortunately I learned a lot about flying with minimal equipment and emergency landings!
Since 2005, NMC Aviation in Traverse City has undergone extensive changes including new leadership and they now rotate out brand new airplanes every 18 months. The good news is all new Cessna airplanes come equipped with high-tech glass cockpits or digital display panels; bad news is I learned on old steam gauges and what is now fairly obsolete equipment. The new instrument technology is like looking at your computer screen and playing a video game, very cool. Anyway, flying a plane is much like driving a car, except that you need to remember one very important bit of advice; takeoffs are optional, landings are mandatory.
I recall my instructor showing me the new instrument display and demonstrating what all the buttons do. He kept saying how much easier it is to fly the plane with this new technology and all I could focus on was “how do I turn it on again”? Well, once we got in the air, I overcame my anxiety of learning something new and started using the technology to my advantage. It was so nice to have all of this wonderful knowledge at the click of a button; airport diagrams, airways, GPS with “direct to” navigation, autopilot, traffic, weather, and so much more. It makes it so easy now that you can really enjoy the whole experience of just flying the plane.
Often times when we are first faced with change and people tell us how much easier it will make our lives, we resist because it is uncomfortable. I think this is true with technology even more because it seems just as we learn something new, another gadget comes out and we are told it is even better than the last! My advice...embrace change. Whether it is a smart phone, new computer, the IPad or even the new glass cockpit for you pilots out there, these gadgets are designed to be user-friendly in many ways and I have learned that if you don’t learn to leverage these wonderful tools, someone else will and you will slip further behind. Change is good!
Make it a great month!
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