From the June 2007 AOPA Pilot: Orville Wright quit high school after junior year. Wilbur finished four years of high school, but did not receive a diploma. Bill Lear (Learjet) also did not graduate from high school. Texas has more public-use airports than any other state, with 389 airports. Alaska is second with 312, then California with 263.
I spent part of today flying with a young U.S. Air Force officer. She has about 100 hours of airplane time and is completing an instrument rating. I introduced her to the Robinson R22 and she didn’t do anything clumsy or dangerous. For that I am very grateful. It is such a pleasure to teach people who are good learners and good pilots. You don’t have to work hard. You don’t get scared. You pat yourself on the back at the end of the day and call yourself a great teacher, taking credit for their inherently good flying skills and intuition.
Plan: Fly the R44 to the E 34th heliport in Manhattan on Thursday, dropping off a friend for a business meeting.
Your second paragraph is quite supportive of the first. Intelligent, organized, and motivated learners ( the Wrights et al ) generally don’t need teachers – they occasionally need to be pointed towards the library or someone who can answer their questions but “teaching” as we know it, especially the type found in contemporary American High schools, just gets in the way of these people…
Different students require different teaching techniques, from being a general guide to training them to learn fact by fact and pounding stuff into their heads. For some, it may be best not to teach them what the currently accepted limitations are and let them smash them.
If you stop by HPN on thurs, let me know.
Peter