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FS: Okay, following on the theme of all these different aircraft that you have flown, which one did you consider to be the biggest training challenge? What license or rating did you think was the hardest to attain and why? I realize this is an individual thing, but since the two of you have had the opportunity to basically, do it all, I'm curious to hear your answers.
MARTHA: Well, you know, it's interesting. There have been a number of big shining challenges. Of course, for anyone, getting their license in the first place is an enormous challenge. That's because there are a number of times as you're going through the private pilot training process where you sit there looking at the airplane and thinking to yourself -"I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to do this." And, different people have more or less trouble with different areas: we all have trouble for instance, in getting the landings down right and it's just, you've never done anything like this before. You've never manipulated a vehicle in three dimensions like this. It's a physical and an intellectual and an emotional challenge because you have to be in control of yourself in order to be in control of the airplane, and everybody feels at some point during this process, “I'm not sure that I can do this.” And, so it's an enormous challenge, but then the reward of it is just enormously satisfying.
JOHN: As we progressed along, one of the things that surprised me and one of the reasons Martha and I continued to learn to fly different kinds of aircraft, is that it's very important for us to remember what it's like to learn to fly. It takes a tremendous amount of commitment for everybody to learn to fly, and that's why I think the people who take on that commitment, who are willing to put that much effort into life, are very special and precious people.
As I was learning to fly the helicopter, it brought that all fresh and new to me because it's a complete start-over (from fixed-wing flight). The helicopter has no respect for you at all. It doesn't understand you've got several thousand hours of flying time. It doesn't know you have all of this experience. And it says - “I'm sorry, sir, but you're going to have to completely start all over again.” And, you're going to have all of those same feelings that you had when you learned to fly. You're going to doubt yourself. You're going to wonder whether or not you're going to be able to do this. And the helicopter did all that for me.
I think one of the nice things about flying is when you meet someone who's learned to fly, you know that they have had those doubts about themselves and had to persevere through that. You know that they sometimes got so excited that they were shaking with excitement when they were learning to fly, and they would sit in the seat and sweat just from the exertion and energy and concentration they were putting into it. And, so, it was nice to learn to fly a helicopter because it had been some years since we'd learned to fly in the first place, and it brought all those things back to me and just reminded me how special everyone is who learns to fly.
MARTHA: The other thing is people think, “Well, you know, exotic aircraft or advanced ratings like jet ratings and so on are going to be the toughest,” but I think that the second-most difficult rating was the instrument rating. And, the reason for that is when you get the instrument rating rating you have to learn a new way of thinking. You have to learn to visualize things in three dimensions without being able to see anything outside the cockpit of the airplane. And, it takes a lot of work. It's a big challenge to do that. It's a new way of thinking about your flying. It gives you an incredible amount of precision in your flying and just a whole new feeling of challenge and accomplishment. One of the things I'd like to say about the instrument rating is that it's learning to trust vision beyond sight, because you're visualizing in your head everything that's going on and what you need to do without being able to physically see any of it outside the cockpit windows.
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FS: Yes, since I'm currently an instrument student, I can really appreciate what you're saying there, certainly in learning to trust my vision beyond sight, and experiencing the challenge - but, it's fun and it is rewarding and it's something that I'm really enjoying.
Next: Global flight: flying outside of the USA
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