December 2003 - American Bonanza Society

GUEST
EDITORIAL
Thoughts on the privilege
of flight-l 00 years on ...
BY MACARTHUR JOB. lILYDALE. VICTORIA. AUSTRALIA
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Do we ever stop to think how
utterly staggering this privilege
of ours is? Even if it
were possible to count all the
pilots who have ever flown. from the
inception of aviation 100 years ago to
the presel1l day, their number would be
infinitesimal compared to the hosts of
the human race that have peopled the
planet down the millennia. Yet each of
us today is one of that elite!
And of the vast multitudes that
make up the earth's population at this
very moment. how relatively few have
learnt to fly. Yet again, we find ourselves
members of an exclusive fraternity.
Like the gods of ancient mythology,
only we who are pilots know the exhilaration
of personal flight!
So is it any wonder that, for most of
us, fly ing can be something of an ego
trip? This is not to be critical, for nearly
all human achievement is a product of
the ego. But here we have to make a
vital choice.
Is our ego trip to be one of mastery-sure
and certai nand depend-
able-in a challengi ng (and alien) environment"
Or is it to become the nearultimate
opportun ity for irresponsible
display, using our acquired skills. in
combination with the aeroplane's inherent
qualities, merely to impress those
less privi leged?
There is good reason for emphasizing
the "mastery" aspect of a pilot's
role. Be his aircraft large or small, his
responsibility is one inherited from hundreds
of years of seafaring- it has more
in common with that of the master of a
ship rather than the driver of a train or
motor vehicle. He is expected to be "the
pilot in command"-not just the one
who drives or steers.
For, like seagoing, aviation can be
brutally unforgiving of fooli shness or
error, or even of being taken for granted.
Certainly, the unhappy experiences of
countless pilots who have faUen victim
to it since the Wright flyer first lifted off
the ground iIf' 1903, attest to this
unpalatable truth. The reality of the
aphorism that there are old pilots and
bold pilots, bur no old bold pilots is also
borne out by the seemingly inexhaustible
fund of nasty surpri ses aviation
holds in store for the unwary, the
ill-prepared or the foolhardy.
Though few today would take seriously
that other old maxim, "If God
meant man to fly, He would have given
him wings," this, too, has an element of
truth. For flight is an alien environment
for us and for it to be acceptably free
from danger, it has to be performed
within parameters that allow for the
inevitable errors, misjudgments and
other contingencies that are the consequence
of human frailty. A margin of
safety is thus fundamental to all aspects
of flying. Safe pilots are those who fl y
responsibly in accordance with this philosophy
at all times.
In all forms of human endeavour,
responsibility and privilege are inexorably
linked. And nowhere does this
devolve more personally than in the
command of an aircraft-particularly
one carrying trusting passengerswhether
or not it is from under the
watchfu l eye of any regulating authority.
The awesome privilege that is ours
as pilots today continues to demand a
simi larly exalted sense of personal
responsibi lity!
Macarthur Job is a well-known aviation
writer in Lilydale. Victoria. Australia. He
has given appraval for this article to be
reprinted in ABS Magazine. He wrote it
for the Ulydale Airport newsletter.
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Page 8176
ABS Dec embe r 2003