Milestones are something we often observe to bring back good memories or special occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries. We may also use them as an occasion to reflect on our successes and failures, and to measure our life progress. Few other activities as aviation count ratings obtained, hours flown, accident-free operation and other parameters as a way of both establishing experience and capability levels while recalling memories.
I’ve previously written here about the 50th anniversary of my first solo (“On Getting to 50,” September 2016) how, at first, I had no formal risk management training. A conservative approach to flight operations has served me well, and combined with planning, caution, flexibility, technology and discipline, are the key traits enabling me to operate accident-, incident- and violation-free all that time. I recently passed two more milestones: the 10,000-hour mark, and 70 years on the planet. While it’s tempting to look back one more time, it seems more productive to look forward from here.
