Learning to Fly a Learjet
My first task at FlightSafety was to attend the one-week initial class to learn all about the Learjet 35 systems. This included AC and DC electrical, hydraulics, environmental, fuel, avionics, and fire control, and focused not only on the system layout and operation, but especially what could go wrong and how to deal with it. At the same time, I was flying the simulator every day to practice what I had learned. It was a lot of work, but after six flights I felt I could enjoy my next flight. However, when I started to get into the pilot seat, my instructor shook his head and told me to sit at the instructor console behind the pilots so I could learn how the instructor controlled the weather and introduced system failures and emergencies. The session after that I practiced being an instructor and did well enough that I was approved to start working as an instructor.
A New Challenge
My boss had a problem. The editor-in-chief and a writer for Flying magazine were going to come to Tucson to do an article about Learjet 35 simulator training at FlightSafety. The problem was that they also wanted to take the Jet Transition Course that taught pilots who didn’t have any jet experience the basics about flying jets. The problem was that almost nobody ever signed up for that course, which was just as well, as it was totally out of date. The other problem was that they were arriving in less than two weeks. Instead of doing the logical thing and picking one of the instructors with lots of jet time, he asked me, with no jet experience at all, to develop the new Jet Transition course and then present it to the pilots from Flying magazine.
It typically takes around 43 hours to develop one hour of quality instructor-led training, which means that 688 hours, or around three months, should have been dedicated to developing this two-day class. I only had twelve days, but fortunately I work best under pressure! They also had a box of updated slides I could use. I did a deep dive into jet aerodynamics, learning about fun topics like Mach Tuck, Coffin Corner, and other ways to die in a jet. Two weeks later I taught the new Jet Transition Course to the editors of Flying magazine. I won’t say it was great, but it was a lot better than the embarrassingly bad previous course, so the editors were satisfied, my boss was happy, I had learned a lot more about flying jets, and ten years later Flying hired me as a contributing editor!
The Supreme Challenge
I really enjoyed being a simulator instructor. I would get together with the pilots for a preflight briefing on what we were going to do, and then I would take notes on how they did during the flight as I introduced various problems and emergencies. After each flight we discussed how they did, and what they needed to work on for the next flight.
Then Learjet introduced the Learjet 55 Longhorn, which was a larger corporate jet with advanced systems, winglets, and even a toilet! Because I did such a good job on the Jet Transition Course, my manager said he wanted me to develop and teach the Learjet 55 Initial Course—a week of eight-hour classroom sessions, followed by a week in the simulator. I was a shy loner who was terrified of speaking in front of a group. Even making a short announcement to a few people at church would get my heart racing, so while I agreed to do it, I was really nervous. To make matters even worse, I still had never flown a jet, and I would be teaching experienced jet pilots who were upgrading to the Learjet 55.
I worked hard over the Christmas break to develop the best course possible as I learned about this new airplane, all the while praying for guidance and strength from God. All too soon the day came when I was going to teach the course for the first time. I remember sitting in my car in the parking lot Monday morning saying to God, “I can’t do this, so you are going to have to get me through it!” I’m sure my nervousness was evident to my students, and I had lists of questions they asked to get the answers for, but I made it through that first week.
Years later I learned that several pilots in that first class had gone to my manager and complained that I didn’t know what I was doing. However, he supported me, and within a few months the Learjet 55 Initial Course was considered one of the best FlightSafety courses throughout the world. What I didn’t know was that God was starting me down the path to becoming a courseware developer, seminar leader and public speaker. Every step along that path, no matter how terrified I was, I relied on God and He got me through it, because as He told Paul, His grace is sufficient!
Floaters
During the time I was working at FlightSafety, I started to get floaters in my left eye. When it got to the point that it looked like the Crab Nebula floating in my vision, I went to an eye doctor. He didn’t even ask me why I was there, but just sat me in front of an automated machine flashing photos of the Acropolis. I asked him if he wanted to know about my problem. When I described what was going on, he took me into a back room, pulled the dust covers off some equipment, examined my eye and almost had a heart attack because it looked like I had a hole in my macula.
Less than two hours later I was being seen by one of the best eye surgeons in the area. He told me I had scar tissue on my retina that had formed a macular pucker. It hadn’t affected my vision much, and the operation to remove it (a vitrectomy) could cause me to go blind, so we decided not to do anything at that point. About a year later my vision in my left eye had deteriorated to 20/50 and I had some visual distortion, so we decided to go ahead with the operation to remove the scar tissue. It was successful, but a month later the scar tissue was back. My surgeon said he was aware of this happening one other time, and the surgeon operated again, injecting some steroids to stop the scar tissue, so we went ahead with the operation and the steroids. The scar tissue was harder to remove this time, and again came back within a month, then my retina detached due to all the trauma, so he had to tack that down.
Forty years later I still have the scar tissue in my left eye, with a blind spot and some distortion, but my brain fills that in with the signal from my right eye. The net result of being the only person in the world whose scar tissue was so persistent is that I lost my desire to be an airline pilot. I could still fly with a special wavier from the FAA, but no airline would have hired me, and I accepted this strong message from God that He was taking me in a different direction.
My first task at FlightSafety was to attend the one-week initial class to learn all about the Learjet 35 systems. This included AC and DC electrical, hydraulics, environmental, fuel, avionics, and fire control, and focused not only on the system layout and operation, but especially what could go wrong and how to deal with it. At the same time, I was flying the simulator every day to practice what I had learned. It was a lot of work, but after six flights I felt I could enjoy my next flight. However, when I started to get into the pilot seat, my instructor shook his head and told me to sit at the instructor console behind the pilots so I could learn how the instructor controlled the weather and introduced system failures and emergencies. The session after that I practiced being an instructor and did well enough that I was approved to start working as an instructor.
A New Challenge
My boss had a problem. The editor-in-chief and a writer for Flying magazine were going to come to Tucson to do an article about Learjet 35 simulator training at FlightSafety. The problem was that they also wanted to take the Jet Transition Course that taught pilots who didn’t have any jet experience the basics about flying jets. The problem was that almost nobody ever signed up for that course, which was just as well, as it was totally out of date. The other problem was that they were arriving in less than two weeks. Instead of doing the logical thing and picking one of the instructors with lots of jet time, he asked me, with no jet experience at all, to develop the new Jet Transition course and then present it to the pilots from Flying magazine.
It typically takes around 43 hours to develop one hour of quality instructor-led training, which means that 688 hours, or around three months, should have been dedicated to developing this two-day class. I only had twelve days, but fortunately I work best under pressure! They also had a box of updated slides I could use. I did a deep dive into jet aerodynamics, learning about fun topics like Mach Tuck, Coffin Corner, and other ways to die in a jet. Two weeks later I taught the new Jet Transition Course to the editors of Flying magazine. I won’t say it was great, but it was a lot better than the embarrassingly bad previous course, so the editors were satisfied, my boss was happy, I had learned a lot more about flying jets, and ten years later Flying hired me as a contributing editor!
The Supreme Challenge
I really enjoyed being a simulator instructor. I would get together with the pilots for a preflight briefing on what we were going to do, and then I would take notes on how they did during the flight as I introduced various problems and emergencies. After each flight we discussed how they did, and what they needed to work on for the next flight.
Then Learjet introduced the Learjet 55 Longhorn, which was a larger corporate jet with advanced systems, winglets, and even a toilet! Because I did such a good job on the Jet Transition Course, my manager said he wanted me to develop and teach the Learjet 55 Initial Course—a week of eight-hour classroom sessions, followed by a week in the simulator. I was a shy loner who was terrified of speaking in front of a group. Even making a short announcement to a few people at church would get my heart racing, so while I agreed to do it, I was really nervous. To make matters even worse, I still had never flown a jet, and I would be teaching experienced jet pilots who were upgrading to the Learjet 55.
I worked hard over the Christmas break to develop the best course possible as I learned about this new airplane, all the while praying for guidance and strength from God. All too soon the day came when I was going to teach the course for the first time. I remember sitting in my car in the parking lot Monday morning saying to God, “I can’t do this, so you are going to have to get me through it!” I’m sure my nervousness was evident to my students, and I had lists of questions they asked to get the answers for, but I made it through that first week.
Years later I learned that several pilots in that first class had gone to my manager and complained that I didn’t know what I was doing. However, he supported me, and within a few months the Learjet 55 Initial Course was considered one of the best FlightSafety courses throughout the world. What I didn’t know was that God was starting me down the path to becoming a courseware developer, seminar leader and public speaker. Every step along that path, no matter how terrified I was, I relied on God and He got me through it, because as He told Paul, His grace is sufficient!
Floaters
During the time I was working at FlightSafety, I started to get floaters in my left eye. When it got to the point that it looked like the Crab Nebula floating in my vision, I went to an eye doctor. He didn’t even ask me why I was there, but just sat me in front of an automated machine flashing photos of the Acropolis. I asked him if he wanted to know about my problem. When I described what was going on, he took me into a back room, pulled the dust covers off some equipment, examined my eye and almost had a heart attack because it looked like I had a hole in my macula.
Less than two hours later I was being seen by one of the best eye surgeons in the area. He told me I had scar tissue on my retina that had formed a macular pucker. It hadn’t affected my vision much, and the operation to remove it (a vitrectomy) could cause me to go blind, so we decided not to do anything at that point. About a year later my vision in my left eye had deteriorated to 20/50 and I had some visual distortion, so we decided to go ahead with the operation to remove the scar tissue. It was successful, but a month later the scar tissue was back. My surgeon said he was aware of this happening one other time, and the surgeon operated again, injecting some steroids to stop the scar tissue, so we went ahead with the operation and the steroids. The scar tissue was harder to remove this time, and again came back within a month, then my retina detached due to all the trauma, so he had to tack that down.
Forty years later I still have the scar tissue in my left eye, with a blind spot and some distortion, but my brain fills that in with the signal from my right eye. The net result of being the only person in the world whose scar tissue was so persistent is that I lost my desire to be an airline pilot. I could still fly with a special wavier from the FAA, but no airline would have hired me, and I accepted this strong message from God that He was taking me in a different direction.