From Hero to Zero in 24 Hours

Above is my new CAP name plate. I’ve lost the old one. It said CAPT John “Slug” Tenney. Yeah there’s a story behind it.

Here’s how it happened:

A Hero

I was in one of the CAP Flying planes, N4238F (a Cherokee Warrior 151 – see above), waiting to depart from Page Field in Fort Myers (KFMY). I was heading home from a business trip. I called ground and asked for taxi. They told me to stand by, the airport was closed for an emergency inbound, maybe a downed aircraft.

Me: “I’m a CAP mission pilot, current and qualified. Can I offer assistance?”

FMY_GND: “Are you DF equipped?”

Me: “Yes I have a DF”
(OK I had an ADF receiver. I know that’s not what he meant. He meant did I have a custom designed RDF receiver – Radio Direction Finder, see picture below. It’s a device that CAP uses to find Emergency Locator Transmitters, also known as ELTs. However, I had been trained to use something called the “wing null” method with standard radios.”)

They cleared me to taxi, an immediate departure and vectored me to join a Lee County police helicopter who was doing a random search. I coordinated with the helicopter crew and they confessed they didn’t know much about searching and were basically just flying around listening to the ELT.

I sent them off in one direction and I began the wing null method. I did a 30 degree bank turn, for 360 degrees (a full circle). I noted the headings where the signal was weakest. In fact it almost disappeared twice. As expected these two headings were 180 degrees apart.

I flew another mile and did it again. This time I got two different headings, a few degrees off from before. I was able to triangulate and determined that the ELT was off to my right, on a certain bearing.

I called the helicopter and told him I had a bearing and to follow me. Shortly, we came upon a Beech A36 Bonanza, looking completely intact but nose down in a ditch. The pilot was standing on the wing.

The helicopter crew informed me that they could take it from here, but thank you very much! “We never would have found him without you.”

Accolades

Fort Myers approach thanked me, congratulated me for the “Find”, (when a CAP pilot finds a downed aircraft, it’s called a “Find”, and I even got a ribbon for it) and passed me on to Miami Center.

“Congratulations on the find! Cleared direct to Orlando.” they said. Wow.

They handed me to Orlando Approach, “Hey 4238F great job on the find! You’re #1 for the airport, cleared direct.”

Orlando Tower said; “Hey great job! You’re #1 cleared to land runway 7”

Ground even congratulated me.

In case you’re wondering, this NEVER happens.

It felt good! For a day …

The Fall From Grace

The next day I was soloing a student, and as I used to do as a normal procedure, I got out of the plane at the runup area of runway 7 with my trusty handheld radio.

Ground called me and wanted to know what I was doing there. I clicked on transmit and the radio shut off. I turned it on again, tried again and I got the same result. Uh oh, short in the transmit switch.

I decided to walk in to Executive Air Center. I walked around Golf, cut across the grass next to the pond, and was walking down Foxtrot when the ground vehicle picked me up. It was Old Harry if any of you remember him. Super nice guy.

“Hey John, tower wants to talk to you. Stand by.” He used the speaker / cell phone (very rare and expensive in those days) and I recognized a certain guys voice. Oh no. My least favorite tower controller, name withheld to protect the guilty, he could be a real jerk.

“Do you realize you just had an incursion on to an active runway?” I said, “No, I didn’t go near any of the runways.” He said, “Yes you did. When you walked across the grass you got within 100 feet of Runway 13.” OK that was ridiculous. 13 wasn’t active, and 100 feet? Seriously? I apologized and said it won’t happen again. I explained about the transmitter malfunction and he said “Yeah well that practice is stopping. No more getting out of the airplane. (Note: about a week later a memo came out saying it was “preferred” that instructors do not get out of the airplane any more, and in fact were welcome to come over to the tower, which used to be on top of the Showalter terminal.) He then dropped the hammer. “You’re a CAP pilot right? You need to discuss this with your squadron commander.”

That wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. I was currently in a dogfight with the Lt. Col for control of the squadron and I just knew he was going to use this against me. And he did. When I called him and told him about it, he “grounded” me and told me to contact the FAA for a form 609 check ride. (I think it’s called 709 now, but basically it’s a reinstatement for remedial training. It went on my record too …

Enter the Slug

Finally, at the next meeting, the squadron commander was replaced by Lt. Zee Delic, who was an excellent guy. He asked me to recant the story of what happened. I told this story and summed up with “I went from Hero to Slug in one day.”

The squadron burst in to laughter and my nickname was born.

Boomer alert: These are stories from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. Any offense taken is all yours buddy.

“Back in the Day”

I was recently asked to tell some interesting stories I had as a flight instructor in the last 30 years. There are so many stories I don’t know where to start really, but here is a pretty funny story about giving a student his first solo.

The SitRep

Jim had been training with me for about 3 months and was really itching to solo. My standards were simple. Give me three touch and gos in a row that I didn’t have to touch the controls, and were reasonably smooth.

Jim was having a tough time putting three together.

Finally, on a nice clear day without any significant wind, he did it. I informed ground control that I was stepping out of the aircraft at the runup area of Runway 7 at KORL with my handy Sporty’s handheld radio. Yes, we were allowed to do this back then.

I told Jim to go around at least three times. “How many can I do?” he asked. “As many as you want.” I said, not thinking ahead …

He did three in a row and they looked good. However, he took off again for a fourth. “Well that’s OK” I told myself. “He’s earned an extra.”

Then he did a fifth. Then a sixth. Then a seventh. At this point I contacted ground and asked them, “Ground, can you ask N739SK his intentions? I’m getting tired out here.”

Ground came back and told me “He says he’s having fun. You want us to send a vehicle out to get you?”

So I retired to the FBO to wait for Jim. Finally, 90 minutes later, on his 23rd landing, he pulled off and taxied in.

I can’t prove it, but I really doubt anyone else has logged “1.5 – first solo” before or since.

I bet if I hadn’t called he’d still be out there …

Operating as a Two Pilot Crew

Safety is the primary issue in corporate flying, now and forever. Owners are realizing that transitioning from one to two pilot crews could add a significant margin of safety.

So how to do this to maximize safety? Managing the resources and coordinating the crew is the driving force behind CRM development. The first item to discuss is Checklists and Flows.

Checklists and Flows

There are two types of checklists: “Do” lists (challenge/response) and “Flow lists” check to see the flow has been done.

There are also two phases of checklists: In flight and on ground.

IN FLIGHT

In flight the checklists are completed by both pilots. They are read by the Non Flying Pilot (NFP) alternately referred to as the Pilot Monitoring (PM). Responses are either SILENT, NFP or Flying Pilot (FP). Also, the entire checklist section could be silent, but the NFP would announce at the end “ checklist complete”

ON GROUND

Items are completed and/or read out by Captain (CA), First Officer (FO) or Both, but in most cases the FO reads off the checklist and one or both pilots respond as required.

Most notable about the checklist above is the reference to Mobile Phones. Sounds funny but is not. Phone usage in cockpits is increasingly becoming a problem.

Following Up the Flow

It’s important to remember a Flow does not replace a checklist. The checklist must be at least read after the flow. It can be a silent checklist in certain situations (after landing for example).

In most cases the post-flow checklist is read by the NFP or the FO.

Reading Out Loud

Let’s leave with this important fact. More and more aircraft are now equipped with some sort of cockpit voice recorder (almost all Pilatus aircraft have them by the way.) Let’s give them something to record. If you have an incident, or worse, an accident, let’s make sure the NTSB hears you doing all the required checklists on that recording. You can do that, right?

I learned about classifying aviation knowledge from one of my true mentors in aviation, Diego Alfonso, past instructor of the year, examiner, and now retired FAA inspector. Pictured left, is Diego as he spoke for us in an aviation safety seminar in 2002.

Diego taught me many vital elements of aviation knowledge in the 30 or so years I’ve known him. I’ll be quoting him a lot in this series on Aviation Safety. One of the first he taught me was the following:

Three Types of Knowledge in Aviation

“John,” he said, “There is a lot to learn in aviation. A real lot. Too much to keep in my little mind anyway. I’ve learned to categorize it in to three types:

• Stuff that the FAA requires. Learn all of that you have to.
• Stuff that impresses girls at parties. Learn all of that you want to.
• Stuff that keeps you from balling it up at the end of the runway. Learn all of that you can.

In my 33 years as a flight and sim instructor, that has stuck in my mind whenever preparing a lesson. We tend to get too deeply in to the systems and mechanics of the airplane sometimes. For example, do you really need to know exactly where the emergency crossfeed shutoff valve is on an airplane? Or is it more important to know where the control is located? You aren’t going to climb out on the wing and fix it in flight, are you?

So in my instruction, I focus on what is vital to know, and can be recognized and/or fixed in flight.

I want to tell you about how I met Larry Enlow and how we went from acquaintances, to rivals, to bitter enemies and finally, good friends.

Becoming a CFI

The year was 1990. I had just returned from a month long stay in Cancun Mexico, as the bass player for a band at the Hard Rock Cafe.

I had been working really hard as a musician / entertainer and managed to save up the money needed for the CFI ride, which in those days was $250 for the examiner and about $250 for the aircraft rental.

The CFI Initial Checkride

I was finally ready to do it. My instructor, Glen Perkins, completed the last of the endorsements and I contacted the FAA flight standard district office (FSDO). They assigned me to a designated examiner in Merritt Island, William T (Tom, or DJ) DeJarnette.

The day of the check ride arrived. I flew over to KCOI in a rented Cutlass (from Air Orlando) and had an intense, draining, 6 hour experience with Tom. Many times I thought he was going to fail me. I messed up several of the flight maneuvers. I hadn’t been able to practice Chandelles and Lazy Eights in anything other than a Skyhawk and guess what, the Cutlass was different.

Maybe Tom gave me a break because of that, or maybe because I did well in the oral examination, but at any rate, I flew back to Orlando with a Temporary CFI certificate in my hand.

And so it began.

I thought the hardest thing I ever did was to get my CFI rating, Not so. Now I had to learn to be an instructor. If you’ve done it, you understand. If you haven’t, just know that knowing something and teaching it to someone else is a completely different thing. Teachers understand.

Fortunately my first student, Sandy Ingalls, was very patient with me and allowed me to learn with her. It’s a truism that you don’t know who’s learning more during the first CFI flight, the instructor or the student.

Enter Larry

About that time, Larry Enlow had recently left Hubbard Construction to be a full time Flight Instructor. Larry was a member of the exclusive Orlando Aero Club, which featured some nice aircraft and many members from the upper crust of Winter Park.

I was in the rival CAP Flying club, which although much cheaper, had older aircraft with more maintenance issues.

Larry started convincing my more well-to-do students that they should join the Aero Club and fly safer aircraft. He was ever the diplomat though, and asked me to join them as well, and hinted that I might be able to instruct in the club. At that time I could barely afford to stay in the CAP club, but I saved up money, and eventually joined.

Then I was told that instructors had to apply and be picked by the board before they could instruct in the club. Larry made sure I was notified when there was an “opening” but it always went to someone else who a board member preferred. We became more than rivals at this point, because I felt Larry had railroaded me, knowing that I would never be a club instructor.

Looking back, Larry had good reasons for holding me back. I was impetuous, arrogant, and certainly not a conservative pilot. I’m sure he was less than amused when I continually introduced him as the “second best instructor on the field,” He could see that I had some things to learn. Fortunately for me, he decided to offer me help rather than fight me.

In 1992 Larry was named as the Flight Instructor of the Year. It was a big deal and I was immediately jealous. How come I didn’t get that? When I complained about it publicly, he pulled me aside and said “We need to talk.”

“Would you like to be considered for that award?” I nodded yes. “Then I want you to come to a meeting with me.”

Shortly after, Larry took me to an Accident Prevention meeting at the FSDO. He introduced me to Obie Young and said, “I think John would make a fine prospect for Accident Prevention Counselor.” (What? What was this?)

Larry guessed (rightly) that by giving me some responsibility, and indeed some liability, that I would begin to take my pilot / CFI duties more seriously. This led to me becoming an APC, later an Aviation Safety Counselor, a member of the FAA Production Crew and most recently a member of the FAASTeam.

To put it simply, Larry is the reason I stand here today. In fact, without him, I would not have met Obie.

Once Larry became an examiner we started to work together more often. I would send him students. Then later, as an FAA inspector, I would help him as he worked with the Production Crew and the Counselors.

The Last Supper

In the late 2000s I did my last stint as a check pilot for the CAP at the Sun’n’Fun Center Annual CAP Check Pilot School. As the chief check pilot for the Florida Wing, it was my responsibility to check out the other check pilots.

After a long 3 days of flying with several CAP pilots, a group of us retired to Tony’s Italian Restaurant in the Lakeland terminal for a relaxing dinner. I’m pretty sure Obie was there, Ben Coleman, Bill Hoenstine and maybe Ernie Strange. I sat next to Larry.

I started reviewing my history with Larry and how we had gone from rivals, to enemies, to coworkers and now friends. He confessed to me that he was very pleased with my “maturation” as an aviator. He said “I didn’t trust you in the early years John, but now you are not only embracing safety and following the rules, but teaching others to do so as well. Thank you.”

I remember that dinner. It’s with that memory in mind that accept this award, in the hopes that I can carry on Larry’s legacy.

To help me stay current as a pilot, I subscribe to a newsletter put out by the University of North Dakota (UND) Aviation School. It is called “BoldMethod” and always includes a quiz with 5 to 7 questions. They have helped me a lot. I forward most of them to my select list of students and fellow aviation enthusiasts. Today one came out about Jeppesen (Jepp) approach charts. Things have changed in the digital age, so I felt a need to explain what Jepp Charts used to mean to pro pilots.

The Story of Jeppesen and The Quiz

Before you try this quiz, a couple of things:

1. You should be well in to your instrument rating training, as this is all about approach charts. They are not applicable to VFR, private pilots.

2. About Jeppesen. “Back in the day” the FAA published approach chart books, for each Air Route Traffic Control Center area, ARTCC or just plain “Center”. Later they changed it to each state, and combined some. Since the approaches change quite often, this usually meant buying a new book every time you went somewhere.

Jeppesen had the idea of a subscription, where you bought one, loose leaf book, for say – the East Coast of the US – and then periodically you would receive new copies of the charts (single pages) that you would update.

It was cheaper than buying books (especially for airlines, who got quantity discounts), but it took a lot of time in the pilot lounge to do updates. In fact you could “suck up” to a chief pilot by doing his updates, which had been stacking in little manila envelopes in a corner of his office. You had to do them in order, and do ALL of them, and log it in the front of the loose leaf binder.

It was a lot of work and no, we didn’t get paid to do it. It was non-paying, non-flight time. I have many memories of sitting around the crew lounge, doing updates with other pilots, and whining about as well.

Today, it’s all digital, as it seems every pilot has a tablet of some sort with some sort of chart app on it. Most of them are FAA but the Jeppesen option is available for a fee. Jeppesen added a lot of detail to charts, to justify the extra cost. They are not required. Some pilots think they are superior charts, and they probably are but the “superiority” is not necessary to safety of flight. Nonetheless you may still find yourself in a position where you have to read Jeppesen (or Jepp for short) charts, so it’s a good idea to know the “extra” symbology they have added.

If you’re up to it, take the quiz. If you are not going through instrument training right now, this quiz will be intimidating nonsense to you, so please don’t be discouraged.

The Bold Method Quiz

Back when I was flight instructing for a living, I would often fly somewhere in a small plane with a student, colleague, friend, business associate or even a date to enjoy what we called the “Hundred Dollar Hamburger.”

Times have changed. Rental prices have risen as well as fuel prices. A gallon of 100LL used to go for about $2, now it’s between $5 and $9.

Hence my new search, “The Three Hundred Dollar Hamburger”.

Here is a page where I will post links to my airport reviews: $300 Burger

I am going to be posting some articles related to aviation safety. With over 8500 hours total time, I have had some “close calls” now and then. Hopefully others can learn from my experiences. Can’t remember which magazines they were but the features were called “Never Again” and “I Learned About Flying From That.” I never submitted articles but maybe I should have …

Prelude:

About My Instructor

I was a member of the CAP Flying Club in Orlando, FL. My instructor was Lt Col. Glendon W. Perkins, retired USAF. He was shot down in Vietnam July 20, 1966 Released: February 12, 1973. If you witnessed the return of the POWs, he was the first one to walk off the Sabreliner when it landed at Camp David in 1973. He had been imprisoned for 6 years, 6 months and 6 days. I was a little wary of him at first because his license plate was GWP-666 (!). But it made sense after he explained his story.

Glen had drilled me in IFR procedures, we had fortunately got a lot of “actual IFR” time (not all hood time) so I was feeling comfortable about flying IFR. He was an excellent instructor, probably the best I ever worked with.

First Exposure to “Hard IFR”

It was late fall 1989. The ink was still drying on my Instrument pilot certificate. I was currently employed as a keyboard / bass / sax player for a touring show band called “Clutch”. We toured several southeast states, going as far west as New Orleans and as far north as Pittsburgh. I decided to build my time by flying to and from some of the gigs. It was expensive of course, but I had saved some money from my days at Martin-Marietta.

On this particular Thursday afternoon, I was headed for Muscle Shoals, AL – our “home city.” We were due to play at the Holiday Inn Friday and Saturday nights. I had a rehearsal to get to at 11am Friday morning (by the way that is early for musicians.)

I decided to fly up Thursday, to rest for the evening, but also to visit a girl I knew in town. Naturally.

I filed an IFR flight plan for my favorite club plane at that time, a Cessna 177RG Cardinal, N7628V. This plane was very slick, good aerodynamics and 200HP, so it could cruise at 130-135 kts burning only slightly more fuel than a 172 (about 9 gph). I’d been flying it a lot although this was my first out of state flight with it.

As I passed Tallahassee I raised a friend of mine, Willis Foreman, on his Unicom frequency. He had a small grass strip in his back yard which I had never managed to land at, and wasn’t about to now. Still, I always talked to him every time I flew by. Really nice guy, and very helpful in being one of my “side instructors.” Flying safe is about learning from everyone you can, at all times.

“John you have some weather between here and MSL, you feel all right about this?” Willis told me. “Why what do you see?” I asked. “FSS just reported an unforecast line of embedded thunderstorms building up and crossing the state of Alabama, W to E. You may want to rethink this.” I replied, “It’s OK, I’m instrument rated now.” He told me to be careful, don’t take any chances and shortly I was out of range of his handheld.

Lesson 1: Weather doesn’t care what rating is on your certificate.

After some thought I decided to head north and try to go around it. I checked in with ATC and they agreed to my reroute. As I crossed in to Alabama it was dusk but I could see the line to the NW.

Atlanta Center

JAX finally handed me off to ATL and the first thing they told me was “line of embedded thunderstorms to your NW extending over 120 miles. Say intentions.”

“I have them in sight. I’d like to maintain a northerly heading and try to get around on that side.”

“Roger navigate your discretion, advise of any major changes in heading, maintain 6000 ft”

The next 45 minutes were what I now call “pickin’ and grinnin'” – basically picking my way along a wall and looking for a hole to get through. I still had 3 hours of fuel and MSL was less than an hour away, direct flight.

Lesson 2: Weather doesn’t care about direct flight distances.

The further north I got, the more solid it looked. It was also now getting quite dark. I asked for some PIREPS. Center told me at one point, “28V, a king air just went through to the west just about abeam of where you are now. He was at FL 180 and reported smooth air. Would you like to follow his path?”

I said “OK let’s give it a try.” I headed west along the vector he gave me. I remember feeling quite a bit of trepidation as I “pierced the wall.”

Lesson 3: PIREPS from larger aircraft may not apply.

Immediately I was uncomfortable. It got bumpy, it was raining hard. Rain was getting in to the cockpit through the door seal. The strobe lights were freaking me out, making the prop seeming to stop in front of me. So I turned them off. Same with the beacon. I left the nav lights on. It was a lousy ride. After one huge jolt I called ATL:

“Center this is no good. Get me out of here. Get me to the nearest ILS airport. I will set it down and wait it out.”

“Chattanooga is a up to your right”

I said, “No no – I want east. Get me out.”

“Nearest airport is Hartsfield.”

I said “OK let’s go there.”

Hartsfield International

Hartsfield, KATL, is one of the largest and busiest airports in the country, indeed in the world. It was forecast to be 800 OC. They vectored me on to a final for 9R, which was one of the middle runways. 8L&R, 9L are north, and 10 is to the south. I flew the approach, got the outer marker and was ready to configure for descent when approach asked me to “keep my speed up.” I had a Boeing 757 10 miles in trail doing 165 kts. I was barely doing 110. Certainly too fast to put the gear and flaps in. I said “I can give you 110 for a bit” – “Approved.”

At 1000′ AGL I started to break out of the clouds and saw the runway ahead. “Runway in sight” “Roger contact tower”

I started to slow down and configure. Flaps 10, gear down … Uh oh, no green light. Crap. “Tower I don’t have a green light on the gear, request a fly by?” “Approved.” And of course he said exactly what you expect. “All three appear to be down and locked.” Always.

I recycled the gear and this time got a light. He let me do a right down wind, and I landed about 2 minutes behind the 757. The ceiling was up to 1000′ at this point and seemed to be clearing slightly.

The taxi on KATL was very interesting. I was behind one 757 and in front of two more. They must have wondered what the hell I was doing. They told me to turn left at “Dixie”. The ICAO alphabet mnemonics used to be changed at KATL, because you can’t say “Delta” and not get confused. (Now, with the ridiculous “woke-ism” ruining this country, they got rid of Dixie and changed it back. Ugh.)

I parked it at Hangar One and ordered some fuel. The ramp guy came over with the truck and said “What is this? a 210?” Obviously they didn’t see many small aircraft there. Of course, I verified it was AvGas. He told me the AVGas truck usually just sits there. 99% of their fuel sales was Jet-A.

The Trip to MSL and FSS

As soon as I got inside, “drained the sumps”, and settled down a bit I made a couple of calls. The first was to Wendy, who was waiting to pick me up at KMSL. I told her what was going on. She said she would wait.

Lesson 4: Don’t tell people to wait at the airport. Call them when you land.

Next call was to MSL FSS. (1-800 WX-BRIEF always got you to the nearest Flight Service Station in those days.) I reported I was waiting out the storm here in ATL, when would it be over? “What storm?” “Whaddya mean what storm? I was just getting bounced around in embedded thunderstorms.” “Those have dissipated. Nothing left but some light rain.” No way. It changed that fast? I’d been in it only 40 minutes earlier.

“OK then, here’s my flight plan from KATL to KMSL” and off I went.

Clearance gave me a Standard Instrument Departure, which I had never done except in training. I started to read it back and paused. The controllers there are very understanding. He said “You can expect vectors to follow the SID.” (Thank you! By the way, today they only give SIDs to turbojet and some turboprops.)

I got up to 6000′ and there it was. The wall. I went in and guess what. Same thing. Bumpy, rainy, turning lights off so the prop doesn’t looked stopped in front of me. OK maybe I just need to ride it out.

Wait what was that? I thought I saw stars above me for a second.

“Center, can I request 7000 ft? I think I may be on top there.” “Well it’s the wrong altitude for your direction of flight but you’re the only one out there so go ahead.”

At 7000′ I was clear on top. A beautiful moon, many stars and I wish I had taken a picture.

Lesson 5: A change in altitude can really help.

The ILS in to runway 30 was almost to minimums, but I saw the rabbit, continued, saw the runway and landed. It was now almost midnight. So much for my night out.

Wendy and her mom were waiting for me in the terminal and neither was happy. They had been sitting there for hours. Needless to say, my night was “uneventful.” The couch was fairly comfortable though …

Summary

Lesson 1: Weather doesn’t care what’s written on your certificate.
Really, how did I not realize this. Just because I was an instrument pilot didn’t mean I could go through a line of embedded thunderstorms. Now, in my “later years” I won’t even try it. I’ll land and wait it out. As one of my flying mentors, Paul Allen told me; “There’s no future in flying in thunderstorms.”

Lesson 2: Weather doesn’t care about direct flight distances.
It was a good thing I had topped off the plane instead of “filling to the tabs” like we usually did. When I landed in Atlanta, I had about an hour of fuel left. That would not have been enough to get to MSL, fly a missed approach, go to the alternate and hold for 45 minutes.

Lesson 3: PIREPs from larger aircraft may not apply.
Well duh really. For me to think I would have the same experience as a King Air was foolish.

Lesson 4: Don’t tell people to wait at the airport.
“If you have time to spare, go by air.” The axiom is often proven true. This time was no exception. Knowing that people are waiting has been the cause for many errors in pilot judgment. Don’t be stupid.

Lesson 5: A change in altitude can really help.
I can’t tell you how many times in the airlines a 2000 ft change smoothed up a rough ride. It was a lesson I kept with me all these years.

Bonus lesson: Slow Down.
You will make up the extra time you spend doing a thorough preflight and weather planning, and if you don’t? It’s not worth the trade off!

Remember: “Superior pilots uses their superior judgment to avoid needing superior skills”

I‘ve listed seven and a half of what I see are the most common misconceptions of “success.”

(Edit on Aug 29, 2020: I have been blessed with opportunity in my life and willfully prepared myself to be in a position to explore more opportunities. This will probably lead to another article, but the main reason is that I learned in my 30s that getting G.O.O.D. (Get Out Of Debt) is a key part of being prepared. If you are overcome with debt, you will have a tough time taking on a new opportunity.)

1: Success means having a lot of money.
While it is certainly better to have money than have not, there are more important things than money. The most important thing to any person is health. Ask any person who is unhealthy how much they would pay for good health, if you are wondering. Ask someone in a wheel chair what they would pay to have their legs back, for example. Health comes first, then money.

2: Success comes from working hard.
A lot of people work hard their whole lives and end up broke, destitute and in poor health. Success does not rely on hard work although it may be necessary from time to time. Success comes from working smart. Pay attention to what is going on around you and work on the right thing at the right time. Don’t forget that successful people take time off to recharge their batteries as well.

3: Successful people were born rich.
Yes there are some inherited fortunes out there but most research shows that unless the ancestors took careful time and consideration in building and protecting the fortune, the heirs were quite capable of squandering it, and in a hurry. For every inherited millionaire (or lottery winner for that matter) there are a million scammers with “get rich quick” schemes that will take away that fortune, and quickly.

4: Success comes from luck.
There is no such thing as luck. There is only being prepared when opportunity presents itself, and recognizing that opportunity. When opportunity and preparation collide, you “get lucky.”

5: Go to college, get a good job and you will be successful.
While a college education may be a good thing, it does not guarantee success. It certainly does not guarantee a “good job” if such a thing exists. Most jobs are not guaranteed and do not offer lifetime security. Those that do (government jobs for example) are being closely scrutinized and there is a trend to take those hefty pensions away. Formerly, you could get a government job right out of school (with a local government even) work it for 20 years, retire with a full pension, and even go get another government job and end up with 2 guaranteed pensions. With the recent backlash at the rising cost of government, this option (and others) may not be there for much longer. Also, every job involves someone else controlling your destiny, which is not ever a good thing.

6: Be persistent, stay focused on one path and you will be successful.
Oddly enough, most successful people today have changed their paths many times in their lives. For them, success is more of a mindset than an ability. Along with happiness, success to them depends on their state of health, and state of mind.

7: Successful people make their vacation their vocation.
Changing your favorite hobby to your business may sound like a good idea, but then what are you going to do to relax? It’s important to keep some activity separate from your professional or career life that you can use to enjoy your existence. You don’t have to make money at what you do.

7 and a half: Successful people take more than they give.
Not true. Truly successful (happy) people are always giving back, and not just for tax deductions. They give back in a multitude of ways. Here are just some of the activities that give back: Mentoring, coaching, volunteering, contributing, tithing, performing, speaking, teaching, etc.

Here is a suggested exercise to determine what “success” means to you. Write down your answers to the following questions and read them over carefully:

Today is ___ _____ 20__ and I am ___ years old.

Ten years ago my situation was:

The things I am most proud of over the last ten years are:

The things I wish I did differently over the last ten years are:

Ten years from now I will be:

The most proud of:

Happy I did:

Sorry I didn’t do:

Back Story: My Success Interviews
In the mid 90s I was working as a corporate pilot. I spent a lot of time at General Aviation (what the public calls “private”) airports, waiting for clients to go do their business and return to be flown home. I decided to take advantage of that down time.

I would wait for a flashy corporate jet to arrive, or maybe even a fancy turboprop (a King-Air for example) and greet the people when they walked in with a question: “Do you own that plane?” When I was directed to the owner I would then ask, “Do you mind if I ask you a question? How did you get to where you are now, that you can afford a beautiful plane like that?”

I must have asked that question to at least 150 wealthy people. I wish I kept better notes. Here is what I remember.

• All of them took time to talk to me. They all enjoyed talking about their success.
• Almost all were business owners. NONE worked for a government organization. Some owned charities though.
• Very few of the business owners had bought the business. They had sold many businesses but rarely bought one.
• All of the business owners offered me encouragement. They were impressed that I would ask that question. Most gave me their address (this was before email) and asked me to stay in touch. (I still do with some of them.)
• All of them treated me with deference, as if I were an equal. That impresses me more today.
• All of them discussed failed businesses or ventures and what they had learned from them.
• Most of them had developed a repeatable system, easily duplicated with proper training.

I was surprised at how few of them actually talked about setting goals. They were mostly what you and I would call “deal makers” or negotiators. They were prepared rather than planned. No one gave me a “way to plan success.” The impression I got was that always being prepared when an opportunity presented itself often led to a win. Many also suggested I “learn from other’s mistakes.” I’ve remembered that one.

I often wonder if the stories would be the same today. I don’t spend as much time sitting around airports as I used to. Time to change that I guess!

We are finishing up a trip to Dahlonega, GA and it has definitely been about making family memories. My primary purpose in coming up here was a cycling challenge which you can read about here, but since my family was along, we had some great memories.

First of all, we drove up together, with 4 days worth of stuff. For me and three girls, you can imagine, that was a lot of stuff.

Fazoli’s

No trip to North Georgia is complete without stopping at Exit 18 off of I-75, to eat at one of the last remaining Fazoli’s in the south. This has been a tradition of ours since 2012. We discovered it was there from a cycling racing friend of mine, Jason Guillen, who sadly has retired from Florida Cyclocross. Hope he comes back some time!

If you aren’t familiar, Fazoli’s is the fast food version of Italian cuisine, and for fast food, it’s not bad at all. I had a delicious Penne pasta with meat sauce, and the girls had similar meals.

Atlanta Traffic

It seems that no matter when we leave, we always run in to rush hour traffic around Atlanta. This time was no exception but it did always move a little, and only delayed us 20 minutes or so. Kathleen was very adept at using the Google app on her phone to pick the better routes.

Dinner in Dahlonega During the “Times of COVID”

Even though Georgia is “open” there are some restrictions on dining out, such as reduced capacity, distance requirements and for some reason, closing early. We managed to find an Irish Pub that stayed open until 9, and let us stay at our table until roughly 9:30. Grace remembers ordering “The Best Bangers in Town” and enjoying her Irish Sausage.

After our dinner we retired to the Holiday Inn Express on Chestatee St. That’s a Cherokee word, meaning “Land of Pine Torches.”

It was open, but had some COVID restrictions which were really nonsensical and inconsistent, like closing the workout center but not the pool, serving coffee and juice, but no juice machine, “grab and go” food but no seating in the lobby, so everyone sat outside on one bench. Hopefully this all ends the day after election day.

Saturday night we ate at a wings and beer place called “Johnny B’s” which although rustic, served excellent food and beer.

This was a particularly enjoyable meal for me, as I had completed my cycling challenge in spite of many obstacles and failures during the day.

Sunday we ordered Pizza Hut delivered to the room, because we were tired and didn’t feel like going out.

Unique Memories

Both Grace and Sophie were impressed and maybe a little scared by the driving in the North Georgia mountains. The winding roads going steeply up, and down, coupled with someone tailgating us because we are “slow tourists” can be a little intimidating.

On Saturday night after dinner, we parked in the back lot because the front lot of the HI Express was full. Turned out to be a blessing as we saw a field full of fireflies. Kathleen has been telling the girls about fireflies for years and they finally got to see them. We spent a good half hour standing there watching them, even with the doggie bags from dinner in our hands.

On Sunday we headed out towards Helen. We stopped at Turner’s Corners, a famous cycling stop, to have lunch and thank the people for all they do to support cycling. I had stopped there the day before and not bought anything, expecting to be there more than once. I had to go back and at least have lunch there or else feel terribly guilty.

Following that we visited the town of Helen. (Yes we went to Helen back.) We had no idea it would be such a busy place. Packed with tourists, street vendors, tour rides, carriages, etc. Not at all the quaint little Germanic town I was led to believe. On the good side we found an indoor arcade (because it started raining) and the girls enjoyed Air Hockey, Spider Stomp, Jurassic Park Dino Hunt and even a game of 8 ball on a slightly tilted pool table. My girls had never played pool before(!)

On the way back we stopped at Smith Falls and walked a trail that we thought would lead us to the falls. It didn’t. But it was great fun and quite a challenge for me to walk up and down the hills so soon after the grueling bike ride from the day before.

During dinner in the hotel room we had a “Family Meeting” to discuss our favorite parts on the weekend. It is always good to rehash these things, and inspired me to write this article. We like Dahlonega but there are other places to visit, so this may be our last trip here. Hopefully the memories last a very long time.