“I just don’t feel like I’m inspired to fly,” a good friend of mine said in a conversation we had not too long ago. We were having a long conversation about the state of General Aviation when we came to this point. “I feel like I need a new aviation ‘hero’ to get me going again,” he continued. “Well, not a hero, but at least someone who makes me feel like flying is really cool or something I want to do again.”
The hard part of this realization was that I couldn’t really disagree with him. What’s worse is that neither of us are just involved in aviation part time. I fly regularly as an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner, as a flight instructor, and as a contract pilot. But I don’t fly in my spare time much anymore. Sure, I fly personally for travel, and I still much prefer this to driving a ground based vehicle, but it is more about function than inspiration. And I can’t say that I don’t still love it. I still get geeked out by the fact that I am defying gravity behind a big fan in a pile of tin (or in some cases composite) powered by dead dinosaurs, but I do have hard time coming up with what I can tell others to inspire them to involvement. Greg, my friend with whom I was talking, isn’t newbie either. He is a pilot and has worked for years in the aviation industry as a writer and editor, but he hasn’t been actively flying the last few years as a pilot. He hasn’t felt inspired. Continue reading