"Ed H" wrote in message
...

"NW_PILOT" wrote in message
...

No it is my concept of life. Plain in simple lifeis short! You never know
how long you have. So live it like every day is your last.


I'm a career Special Forces officer. I've made my living with and around
firearms, explosives, parachutes, and other risky things. Not to mention
roaming around places like Iraq trying not to get shot or blown up. Two
of my favorite off-duty pursuits are aerobatic flying and mountaineering.
So I'm fairly well acquianted with risk.

Here's the thing: it's not about taking stupid chances in search of an
adrenaline rush. It's about controlling your environment, mastering the
challenges set before you. That means gathering information, knowing all
the risks, having the right skills, and taking appropriate measures to
ensure the outcome is positive. Every time.

If you live like every day is your last, then it will become a
self-fulfilling prophesy. It's a BS attitude. Your mentality should be
"I may die, but it ain't gonna be today." Live to fly (or climb, or jump,
or fight) another day.

I don't know Bob Hoover, but I'm willing to bet that his attitude is
closer to mine than to yours. I've known guys with your attitude. Some
of them grew out of it. The others are dead.

I don't blame you for the roll. I blame your CFI. You, as a student,
cannot be criticized for trusting your CFI to advise you. I probably
would have done the same thing 10 years ago, when I didn't know better.
Your CFI should lose his instructor status, if not his flight privs.

But that highlights the big danger in these kind of endeavors. You do the
right thing by seeking help from an experienced person, but what if that
person turns out to be an idiot? All I can say is be careful who you
trust, seek second opinions, and look for appropriate certifications. One
of the saddest things about the NTSB accident reports are all the stories
of friends and family members killed by jackass pilots doing stupid
things.

It's exactly this philosophy that kept me alive through an entire career of
test flying and demonstrating high performance airplanes at low altitude.
And you're right about Hoover also. I know him, and his philosophy IS
exactly as you have stated here.
Thank you for your service,
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot; CFI; Retired
dhenriquestrashatearthlinktrashdotnet
(take out the trash :-)