Private Pilot Flight Training and Instruction Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM The Joys of Flying Getting through your checkride successfully gives rise to a sense of elation and achievement that can only be described in superlatives. Just how it is described will vary but the glow lingers, lives and grows. The more you fly the more entrenched will become the satisfaction. The better you fly and get the kind of performance you want from the airplane, the more deeply you will sense the pleasures of flying. Having control over a beautiful piece of machinery by making it obey you gives you a kind of self-confidence and personal assurance that changes your voice, your walk, and way of dealing with people. Self-assurance can be used to great advantage or to self-destruction. It is one of the most powerful assets we can have. Only with experience can you learn to guide and control the power being able to fly creates. The danger lies in that the better you 'think' you fly the more careful you should be. Over confidence is waiting in the wings to slap you down. Just ask the pilot who has had a minor accident as to how he has been brought up short and concerned as to just how capable he is. I have a friend who had such an accident several years ago. He flies but has not flown solo since. As I just told a student today, "Mistakes are always waiting out there to teach you a lesson." No matter how good you are, there are situations out there just waiting to take a bite out of the unwary. Every pilot who flies and survives long enough is going to have phases of his flying life pass by during which he progresses from one experience plateau into another. This may be by way of ratings or hours but no matter how accomplished the 'Passages' come one after another for those who continue to fly. The ability to fly and the changes flying has made in you will be there as long as you live. Written by Gene Whitt Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM