“What good pilots consistently do is perfect their foundational skills. They practice — they live — on airmanship. It’s courtesy, consistency, and core competency.” Darren Pleasance, new President and CEO of AOPA, in Pursuit of Excellence, AOPA PILOT magazine March 2025.
Tag: beginners mind
Screwdriver Meet Screw
This Gary Larson Far Side cartoon is good for a giggle. But some of us don’t see a school for the mechanically declined. We see a masterclass. The best coaches, leading the best players, winning the biggest trophies, taught this way. Back to basics meets beginner’s mind. Vince Lombardi is considered by many the greatest coach in football history. Won …
How Much You Don’t Know
Beginners Mind met Perpetual Pursuit! Always learning. Sometimes embarrassingly large amounts of stuff I was blind about!
Preflight Beginners Mind
One of the hardest things for me is to really see during preflight. But kids beginners mind helps a lot. Down and dirty to look underneath. A nut on every bolt. Climb up to look at the high wing. Then my 8-year-old spots a bolt just sitting on the ramp! Every pre-flight needs a mindset of new eyes.
So That’s Why I’m So Humble!
Living the Dream
From the first hour of flight training, realize that you are already ‘living the dream!’ Eric Auxier. Airline captain and writer.
Can You Take It?
There’s some excellent airmanship advice in an article about the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska (The Red Bulletin, Sept 2016). It’s from helicopter pilot Lt. John Hess (in the picture), who has been awarded the Captain Frank Ericsson Award, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and saved a bunch of lives by flying many extreme rescues. He was asked, how does your crew prepare …
Elliot Seguin on the Perpetual Pursuit
Elliot Sequin is an experimental test pilot working for Mooney Aircraft, the founder and pilot of Wasabi Air Racing, and learnt his craft at Scaled Composites at the Mojave Air & Space Port, Mojave, California. He shares his considerable passion of flying in this cool video.
Patty Wagstaff on the Perpetual Pursuit
Nature’s Mysteries
Our flying journeys are always revealing new landscapes, outer and inner.