Astounded. Frustrated. Concerned. So many feelings running through my brain, and yet not one of them could I verbalize! What is there to do when the person whose life is entrusted to me calls the rules stupid?
Just as I think I can call myself an "experienced" instructor, I get a wake up call! Nothing really prepared me for what I heard...I don't think anyone [insert at my experience level here] could really be PREPARED for it. Perhaps out of stress from his impending checkride or perhaps out of honesty, my student exclaimed in the middle of our pre-checkride ground session, "These rules are stupid! Why do I need to know these rules? I did not study for my driver's test, why do I need to study these rules for flying? What about the Pilot Operating Handbook? What is this? Why do I need this chart, and why do people need to know this?! I do not even know the horsepower of my car..." and so on.
It is one of the most frustrating experiences - to sit there and look at someone with the desire to scream at them, to yell something, anything that would make them see the light and not being able to. Not able to form the sentences nor the words needed to convey the important response.
This is my best attempt to answer:
On a light note, if you lived where I live right now, you'd know that the remark about the driver's license test/rules doesn't mean much. Half the people don't have a license and the other half seem like they neither like driving nor spend much time doing it...perhaps myself included?! ;)
Yes, driving has it's rules and often the importance of following these rules is undervalued. They of course should be followed, but to stay on topic...
Most, if not ALL Federal Aviation Regulations (the "rules" as my student so eloquently put it) relate directly to safety! To make it perfectly simple (and how I wish I could have put it for my student), not following the rules will kill you! In addition, knowing them and ignoring them is just as much of a problem as not knowing them. It scares me, more so saddens me, to think of the people that do not respect the rules. The rules are there for a reason, and they were created from the blood of others. They would not be there otherwise.
When I was first learning to fly I used to have a "competition" with a classmate in my ground school. We sat right next to each other and always compared our scores on our tests (he always seemed to do better!). He usually had a score in the high 90s, a very bright, smart young kid...he apparently "knew his stuff." He went out one December night, on a night I vividly remember as blizzard-like, and went flying (some of us already had our licenses before attending this ground school). The next day in class he was not there and we all found out from the professor that he had gone flying the previous night - both him and a buddy of his were killed. What happened? This smart, knowledgeable classmate had killed himself. He would have been the last person I expected that to happen to. He knew the rules, he knew what they meant....why did he go? He couldn't have gone...
But it did happen to him, and it can happen to anyone with or without the knowledge of the rules. With this knowledge there needs to be respect, and by respecting the rules one respects flying, and when one respect's flying, one respects his own life and that of those who would fly with him.
I wish I had a good answer for every question - I know it will come with experience. Until then...
Flying can kill, but in my opinion a respect for ourselves and what we do is the #1 antidote. Knowing and following the rules is all part of it.
Fly safely,
Up in the Air
