Pilot Mkristo Bruce, a former NFL player, points out the importance of being coachable in both aviation and sports. [Courtesy: Mkristo Bruce]
Key Takeaways:
Aviation training shares significant parallels with sports, requiring physical skill, knowledge, and the ability to learn from mistakes by adopting a "flush it and get on to the next play" mentality.
Former NFL player Mkristo Bruce exemplifies this by applying lessons from his athletic career to his flight training, emphasizing the importance of moving past errors like bad landings.
Effective pilot development benefits from diverse instructors—some offering tough love and others a gentler approach—and by becoming comfortable with uncomfortable situations to build resilience.
Failure is an essential part of the learning process in aviation, unlike sports, and directly contributes to a pilot's growth and ability to perform without "participation trophies."
Coachable is defined as “being easily taught and trained to do something better.” If you ever had the chance to learn a sport or play a team sport, or maybe even coached someone yourself, you know that it takes physical skill and knowledge to play a sport.
These things are also required in aviation.
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Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
