How can you improve yourself as a pilot?

ChasenSFO said:
What I'll remember from my CFI always is "You don't have to be a commercial pilot to be a professional pilot". I have fun when I fly, but its serious buisness. I always give my friends a full briefing, and make them open and close the door. They always laugh and think it seems stupid, but if I'm making a forced landing with an engine fire, I have a lot less to worry about if they know whats coming and how to get out.

Personally, I think you can never know enough about the systems of your airplane. I knew enough to pass my oral, but I'm still no where near 100% on how everything works. I'm not a car guy, so engines and all that aren't my idea of fun or interesting, but I feel is very important to understand.
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:yeahthat:I've known many private pilots who have a more professional attitude towards flying than some commercial pilots. It's not about ratings, it's about character.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
Listen to Dale, for he is wise ;)
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Not so wise, but I listen to the guys I want to emulate. I am planning on doing both this winter. I went through ATP and took a fast track path to get my career going. JC was my hangar talk for the most part. I am taking advice from the great pilots I fly with on how to become a better stick.
 
This may sound off the wall but try to be as happy as possible in everyday things and while flying. The mind will function a lot more efficiently and more precise if it isn't being clouded by anger over long trips or that you aren't going to upgrade for a long time. One will probably enjoy life over-all if they just try to be more happier.

The other points are great as well.
 
Mostly great replies. The others are good.

A leader leads from the front. A manager pushes from behind.

Being humble, willing to learn. It's an attitude of contriteness.

Gliders and tailwheels make you more skilled but I think we're talking attitude here.

For me, it's something Aristotle said long ago: "Excellence is what we repeatedly do. Therefore, it is a process not an event." I tape that quote in the front of each flight logbook.
 
ahsmatt7 said:
This may sound off the wall but try to be as happy as possible in everyday things and while flying. The mind will function a lot more efficiently and more precise if it isn't being clouded by anger over long trips or that you aren't going to upgrade for a long time. One will probably enjoy life over-all if they just try to be more happier.

The other points are great as well.
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Avbug on another forum many years ago said something very valuable: the only hour that matters is now. This late-in-life career transition into aviation hasn't gone as I wished but I can honestly say I have not been anything less than delighted when I'm flying. This whether it is a C-172 or 400 series or turbine, snotty pax or severe turb.
 
///AMG said:
IMHO no subsitute for real life experience, and preferrably lots of it. Studying, systems knowledge, sim time is all good and well, but it only goes so far in terms of preparing you for the unknown. Aside from that, I guess I would just say always being hard on yourself about the basics. If you refuse to accept deviations in basic airwork and such, then when things pile up on a bad day, it is just a habit pattern to at least have that much suitcased already. One of my favorite instructors in advanced training during flight school always posed various derivations of the same question in briefs/debriefs: "what is that ball telling you when it is low/high?", "what is your airspeed indicator telling you when you are 5 knots fast?", "what is your altimeter telling you when you are 50' high?", "what is your bearing line telling you when you are acute?" and so on. The answer: "You suck". There is a whole hell of a lot more to good airmanship than just flying the numbers, but I have NEVER met a really good pilot who didn't make it their job to nail them in spite of everything else going on around them.
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+1

I agree. If you can trim it nicely to fly straight and level at 4050ft, you can get it to maintain 4000ft. I'm not saying I'm mr. perfect all the time, but I do try.
 
Chief Captain said:
+1

I agree. If you can trim it nicely to fly straight and level at 4050ft, you can get it to maintain 4000ft. I'm not saying I'm mr. perfect all the time, but I do try.
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Yeah, if I'm reading all this correctly, it's basically about not becoming complacent. And that's good advice. 99% of the time you're going to get away with it, but when things go pear-shaped, having done everything you're supposed to have done already suddenly gets real important. I will say that staying aware and awake in flying (not unlike life) is incredibly hard, but it's worth it. In both venues.
 
Boris Badenov said:
I will say that staying aware and awake in flying (not unlike life) is incredibly hard, but it's worth it. In both venues.
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which is why flying a glider is important to this, you must stay on top of your co-ordination or you will give up precious energy... and a tailwheel means you fly it until it's in the blocks.
 
I'm going to take my first aero lesson this weekend, and I'm waiting to be humbled. I also gotta find out where I can get into gliders. I really want to fly gliders, they are very very cool machines. I rode in one once when I was a kid in CAP and I think that was the catalyst that made me want to fly professionally.
 
Boris Badenov said:
I will say that staying aware and awake in flying (not unlike life) is incredibly hard, but it's worth it. In both venues.
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+1. That was probably the biggest hurdle for me moving into faster and more complex aircraft.......if you aren't doing anything for more than about 5 or 10 seconds, you are missing something.
 
ppragman said:
Well I'm hoping that every time I fly a glider I'll have a transformational life event. Hopefully, this time I'll transcend reality and depart samsara. Or something like that.
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Maybe I've been pitching this glider stuff a bit too much - it's an aircraft, you fly it, land it, hopefully don't bend anything. And doing so takes most of your concentration - I leave it for the passengers to transcend reality (or whatever it is they are staring at).

But yeah - it is pretty cool. Those rare days when you realize there is no worrying about making the field, and you can't lose altitude without the boards out - certainly something special.
 
Table Two said:
Re-learn to fly by looking outside the plane, you don't need a G-1000 to fly a Cessna.
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Nor do you need it to fly anything else, depending on circumstances. I teach my students tactical formation in the T-38 based on looking 100% outside the aircraft.

The skill is knowing what phases of flight to have your crosscheck primarily outside (and specifically what to be looking for outside and where...) and when to have your crosscheck primarily outside. One scan doesn't fit every situation.

ryan1234 said:
The other day - I watched a pretty well known former Tomcat guy jump from an MS760 into a P-51 (within minutes of each other) and fly both to respective ends of the envelope - all with amazing precision.
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Yep, Snort is a good example of the concept.
 
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