mtsu_av8er said:
So, who defines what is trivial, and what is not? I think that flying in the traffic pattern at 300 feet is cool, and I can do it safely - is that trivial? Where do we draw the line?
Common sense defines what is trivial. Some people have more of it than others. Does everything in flying (or life, for that matter) need to be spelled out word for word?
I'm going to say that a reasonable person, with a reasonable amount of common sense, under a reasonable situation, would consider the difference between "upwind" and "departure" to be trivial. The same test could be applied to most things in flying. If you disagree with that, that's ok, but we'll have to agree to disagree then.
mtsu_av8er said:
I'm sorry that you take them as such. I'm not trying to be preachy at all. However, if something is wrong, it's wrong. As I said in the post before, if you're ok with intentionally doing things wrong because it's convenient for you, that's fine!
Haha...ok, that's exactly the sort of tone I was referring too. If you go around telling people that they're "intentionally doing things wrong because it's convenient," it sounds very accusatory (sp?) and not very open to any sort of discussion. Whether you're right or wrong, it doesn't make you sound like a nice guy. You're framing the argument to suit your point of view in order to "win."
Of course nobody is going to stand up and say, "Yes, I love intentionally doing things the wrong way," so it looks like you won the argument. But you're missing the point. What you call "intentionally doing things the wrong way," another equally competent pilot might refer to as "this isn't a big deal, I'm not going to tear my hair out over every little detail." There are other valid viewpoints besides your own. When you say things like this, it sounds like "My way is the only way and I'm 100% right." That's why people accuse you of being a know it all or arrogant or whatever it is you have been accused of.
That reminds me of something else I've learned from instructing--very few things are black and white. It's impossible to say every pilot needs to know this, this, and that, nothing more, nothing less. Flying just doesn't work like that.
Of course I do my best to teach things correctly and completely, but there is a lot to think about when flying. You can only cover so much in a segment of training and see so much improvement in a student. You have to prioritize what *really* matters and what is just nice to see, icing on the cake so to speak. There have been times when I've let a few things slide with students because I want to focus on more important habits. If I nitpick every little detail, the important stuff will get lost in the torrent of advice and the student will be worse off than if I'd let the little things slide. It's all for the greater good of creating a safe, competent, well-rounded pilot.