AircraftOwner Online

     Sometimes you find reminders and lessons in the natural world which provide lessons or reminders for you in your own life. Such was the case with me and a family of Robins just last month.

    The Robins have found the prefect place to build their hangar home on a protected ledge on the front porch of our house. I enjoyed watching the hangar construction progress and subsequent growth and development of four new flyers. They began their flight training just two weeks after hatching. This set me to pondering just how much flight training was necessary as a percentage of their life expectancy.

    My curiosity thusly piqued, I began my research. Turns out, the life expectancy of your typical Robin is roughly 6 years (in case you are curious, the oldest know wild Robin lived nearly 14 years). The flight training for the fledgling Robins on my porch was just under two weeks. That was from their first solo until they did a self checked out and left the hangar area for good.

    Assuming the average American has a life expectancy of 80 years, converting the Robin-to-human years, the fledgling pilots’ training took the human equivalent of just under six months – a surprisingly comparable number – and those Robins were born to fly. Six months is a very reasonable time period to earn a private pilot’s license so it seems we were also born to fly.

    After coming to that conclusion, I also came to the realization that once a Robin solos, practice comes pretty much automatically. Flying around the yard, they reminded me that the summer flying season is here – and that I needed to get out and do some practicing myself.

    So, this weekend was dedicated to getting some practice and training in preparation for some serious flying I plan to do this summer. I pulled three aircraft out of the hangar and dedicated Saturday, Sunday and Monday to flying. Saturday was tail dragger day with several hours of flying in the Fairchild PT-23. This included numerous landings in crosswinds on both grass and concrete. After that, I could not resist pulling out another PT for some fun flying with my
wife Suzanne, and fellow pilot’s Jim Obowa and Paul Hodapp.

    That Sunday, I pulled the Husky on amphibs out and did takeoffs and landings on several lakes and a fast running river. This practice also included docking, sailing, step taxing, turning on the water in the wind and the like. On Memorial Day, I was ready for some serious training.

    Last month, while the Robins were growing, I purchased a used Beech Barron. My good friend and veteran flight instructor, Nickoli Pontecorvo has just come up from Key West to ANE on a ferry flight. Nick has thousands of hours in the Baron and agreed to give me a day of dual and a checkout, including my BFR and Instrument Proficiency Check in the Baron. It went well, but with Nick running me through the ringer, I sometimes felt like one of those newbie Robins flapping around in the air.

    If you fly several different types you know how important it is to be competent in each of them. Systems vary, techniques vary and knowing how to finesse each one also varies. The only way to stay up to speed is to get out and fly the aircraft and be constantly practicing. I would also be remiss if I didn’t add – and use a checklist. Everyone forgets something now and then and it is no different in the cockpit.

    Every summer I pledge to do at least as much flying, if not more, than the summer before. This summer is no exception. I hope to get to more fly-ins and more aviation events than ever. Hopefully I will get to see you there. In the mean time, let’s get out there, practice our techniques and fly somewhere – there are only so many Robin years to go!