Re: [Phys-l] learning, judgment, self-assessment, etc.

[brian whatcott <betwys1@sbcglobal.net>]

On 5/22/2011 3:01 AM, John Denker wrote:
> /snip/  I'm the instructor. /snip/ I can hold him to high standards while I am there with him,  but there is no way I (or anybody else) can baby-sit him during the other 99% of his flying career. /snip/


...which reminds me:   I am not good at remembering day to day details.

But each time I walk around my airplane to do a pre-flight, I am walking 
in company with a flight instructor - it's usually John Hill, the (then) 
chief flight instructor at Coventry where I learned.

The flaps come full down, the hinges and counter weights are looked over 
every time, the fuel checked for water and so on. As I proceed towards 
the tail, I hear him remind me to look under the fuselage, because 
rivets start sweating there too. I recall that the rudder hinges deserve 
a look, in view of the C-150 that came back after aerobatics with the 
rudder hanging on only one of three hinges; and so on.

Strange, knowing that only 20% of lecture material might hit long-term 
memory, and knowing my own particular weakness in that area, how clearly 
his voice speaks after forty years. Rest in Peace.

Brian W