I have noticed a number of letters to the editor over the years that lament the fact that most of the training and safety articles seem to be about accidents. A few people have even indicated they were scared away from flying by the many accident stories. There is a very important reason many articles reference an incident or accident. As someone once said, “We need to learn from the mistakes of others, because we don’t live long enough to make all the mistakes ourselves!” The aviation version of this might go, “We need to learn from the mistakes of others, because it takes only one mistake to end the learning process entirely!”
The letters did get me thinking about the other side of the coin — what are the attributes of a professional pilot? When I say professional, I don’t mean in the sense of someone who gets paid to fly, but rather any pilot aspiring to the standard of skill and competence normally expected of a pilot who flies for a living. The simple fact is that every pilot, whether he or she flies an ultralight, a light-sport aircraft, a small single-engine airplane or a pressurized twin-engine turboprop or jet, can and should be a professional pilot.
