Anybody else stay up nights worrying about what you DON'T know?

J

jsmitty206

Filing Flight Plan
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Jan 26, 2014
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Seattle, WA
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Display name:
Jesse
Here's the scoop: I got my PPL about 15 years ago with the intention of making it a career, quit flying because I had a good job and was going to "just take year and make some money and come back" and then I woke up 15 years later hating my job yada yada yada. So I decided to go back to the original plan and have gotten back on track. In the last year I've flown about 100 hours and recently gotten my instrument rating and am now building time towards my commercial. Anyways, here's my problem, maybe it's the time off or maybe it's the experience that comes with age (this didn't bother me when I was young) but I spend so much time worrying about what I DON'T know that it's sometimes debilitating. Admittedly, I've been going at this mostly alone and simply getting plugged into communities like this will go a long ways towards easing this, but I'm curious how others deal with this?
 
I'm not a career pilot but in general I just note all the real people I know who aren't fundamentally any smarter than I am who managed to accomplish it. I figure if they did it, I ought to be able to as well.
 
cowman said:
I'm not a career pilot but in general I just note all the real people I know who aren't fundamentally any smarter than I am who managed to accomplish it. I figure if they did it, I ought to be able to as well.
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^^Amen^^
 
There is still quite a bit I don't know, more then a few things I would like to learn (get my glider, AP, maybe helo one of these day$) and that's as a working ATP and CFI.

When you don't think there is anymore to know, or anything else you want to learn, that's when you need to worry.
 
there is so much I don't know, that I don't know I don't know it, so I sleep like a baby
 
Not really. I prep before a flight, rehearse it, do a self check, than go to work flying the plane.

I know there's stuff I don't know, but if I wasn't comfortable with the risk and knew I could deal with anything that came up (lost my nerve), I'd hang up my headset that day.
 
When you consider the rate that knowledge is increasing, even if you devote every waking hour to learning things, you will always know an increasingly small portion or what is known. So, don't sweat it.
 
jsmitty206 said:
Admittedly, I've been going at this mostly alone and simply getting plugged into communities like this will go a long ways towards easing this, but I'm curious how others deal with this?
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Get some dual instruction and practice.
 
I like to be well rested so I am more able to learn something new while flying, rather then to fly tired and fail the potential new learning experience by dying.
 
There is always something to learn. Even airline guys with thousands of hours learn something new. Nobody knows everything.
 
First of all WELCOME to POA... You can never know everything there is to know about flying or anything else in life..:no: All you can do is learn as much as you can and use what you have learned to make the best decisions you can.:yes: No need to loose sleep over it. Fly, learn and enjoy it every step of the way...:yes::yes::yes:
 
Some nights I wake up in a cold sweat and then I think, Oh yeah, Kinkos, no problem.
 
cowman said:
I'm not a career pilot but in general I just note all the real people I know who aren't fundamentally any smarter than I am who managed to accomplish it. I figure if they did it, I ought to be able to as well.
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50% of the people on the planet are of less than average intelligence. Some of those are even pilots.
 
The experience that you gain during the period when you don't know something is called: Education.
Seek the diploma; but don't sweat the small stuff
 
mikeinbama said:
50% of the people on the planet are of less than median intelligence. Some of those are even pilots.
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FTFY

The mean (average) and the median may coincide but they probably don't unless it is a normal distributioin.

And that is your statistics trivia for today....:wink2:
 
This is an interesting topic for POA ,untill I joined this site I was pretty confidant,after reading the posts here,I realize there is a lot I don't know. Doesn't keep up thinking about.
 
mikeinbama said:
50% of the people on the planet are of less than average intelligence. Some of those are even pilots.
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Old George Carlin line. Think about how intelligent the average person is, then remember 50% are stupider than that.
 
Two books to get and read: Advanced Pilot's Flight Manual, by William Kerschner, and Aircraft Systems for Pilots, by Dale deRemer. Amazon has them. The first one covers a whole lot of stuff that flight schools very often miss, and the other tells you what goes on inside the airplane, making a smarter operator. The only worthwhile thing missing from deRemer's book is the turbine engine, but that can easily be found online. The book also has several mistakes or omissions in it, including the common high-tension magneto diagram, an incorrect depiction of propeller blade aerodynamic twisting force (it should show the blade tending to increase in pitch, not decrease), and a couple of other mistakes I can't put my finger on right now. But an excellent book nonetheless.

Dan
 
This is good thread. I am just crossing 400 hours. I'm still shocked by how much I don't know. It is truly a "license to learn". The downside? Those "lessons" kill people from time to time.

I'd like to think my latest "lesson" (which was quite dangerous) was the last. But I'm sure it's not.

To enjoy this hobby, you must have a level of passion that outweighs the risks.

I'm guessing if I ever get "comfortable", that's when I'm at the very highest risk level of all.

Love flying and will not give it up until I'm just not able anymore!
 
I've been flying since 1981, have over 11,000 hours, and have flown the CRJ, DC8, DC9, B737, B757, and B767. Nobody knows EVERYTHING that you are supposed to know.

The important point is to always remember that you don't know everything you should know so that you continue to study. Read the AIM, regulations, Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, Instrument Flying Handbook, and Instrument Procedures Handbook. All are FAA publications and are available for free. Read a little bit every week.

Whenever a question comes up look it up. Don't accept what anyone says or everyone knows. Look it up. That's a good way to make use of the forums. Look up the source material for the topics that everyone is arguing about. Pretty soon "everyone" will be coming to you with their questions (that they're too lazy to look up themselves).
 
cowman said:
I'm not a career pilot but in general I just note all the real people I know who aren't fundamentally any smarter than I am who managed to accomplish it. I figure if they did it, I ought to be able to as well.
Click to expand...

X2. as a total novice (200+ hours) I realize I have a LOT to learn and so read, prowl the forums and ask questions of those whom I respect and who have lots more time in the left seat. it turns out that most of the dumb things i've done have been done by others...I'm not breaking trail.
 
When in doubt, quote song lyrics:
Mystery Skulls - Money
I need to stop worrying about the things I can't control
I need to stop worrying about the dollars I don't own
I gotta stop worrying about the things I cannot know
But sometimes it feels so good, oh

[chorus]
Money don't matter if it feels for you
Money don't matter if you're
Hah, hah, hah
Money don't matter if it feels for you
I used to worry everyday
Now I got better things

Need to stop hurrying, slow down and take control
Gotta stop worrying about your problems you should know
Need to stop feeling like my life is such a mess
Because the world has got me in it
It's my time and I should live it, oh

[chorus]

'Cause it don't matter what the people say
It don't matter what the people do, oh
It don't matter what the people say
'Cause I say baby, you gotta stop worryin', oh

[chorus]
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I am old enough to realize that there will always be things I don't know.

I worry far more about the things that I do know but by nature of being human I simply might momentarily forget. perhaps have of a lapse in focus or may simply just make a wrong decision that could end up having severe consequences.

I always try to remember when I read accident reports that the I am probably not smarter, a better pilot or have better judgement than they did.

Having said all that first of all I do all I can to lower the risks. I have weighed the risk and the reward and when I get in the plane and I fire up the engine and start rolling down the runway the worry seems to melt away.
 
Worrying about what you do not know is not totally unhealthy but don't lose sleep over it.

A concern for one's lack of knowledge is far better than being ignorant and thinking you have knowledge.
 
jsmitty206 said:
Here's the scoop: I got my PPL about 15 years ago with the intention of making it a career, quit flying because I had a good job and was going to "just take year and make some money and come back" and then I woke up 15 years later hating my job yada yada yada. So I decided to go back to the original plan and have gotten back on track. In the last year I've flown about 100 hours and recently gotten my instrument rating and am now building time towards my commercial. Anyways, here's my problem, maybe it's the time off or maybe it's the experience that comes with age (this didn't bother me when I was young) but I spend so much time worrying about what I DON'T know that it's sometimes debilitating. Admittedly, I've been going at this mostly alone and simply getting plugged into communities like this will go a long ways towards easing this, but I'm curious how others deal with this?
Click to expand...

There is always going to be more you don't, and in some situations can't, know than you do know. I learn thing every day and on every flight. The key comes from learning to make good decisions and executing them confidently. The decision making comes with experience, that's why it's 1500 hours to get an ATP, and education be it formal or informal. The execution comes from understanding of energy management, and I have found nothing better for that than aerobatics. I was nervous in small planes until I did a 10 hour aerobatic intro, now I can confidently handle any plane anywhere in its envelope.

There are things you don't know that you should learn, and the rest that you can't learn, you just trust yourself that when time comes, you'll work it out.
 
overdrive148 said:
When in doubt, quote song lyrics:
Mystery Skulls - Money

I gotta stop worrying about the things I cannot know
But sometimes it feels so good, oh.........
Click to expand...

What you cannot know and what you do not know are two different things. There are many dead pilots who did not know the knowable things they should have known. Their ignorance killed them.

Dan
 
James331 said:
...When you don't think there is anymore to know, or anything else you want to learn, that's when you need to worry.
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This^

Complacency and over confidence are the reasons why the pilot accident rate spikes around the 300 to 500 hour mark. You'll never know everything so the best help is to hone your skills to the point that when confronted with an unknown factor you can concentrate on solving the issue because the general aviate, navigate and communicate functions will be second nature.
 
This is a great topic. I think of it often because I do not fly enough to experience many different aspects of flying. Things that come to mind are weather, communications, charts, airspace and so on.

Over the years I've taken ground school as a refresher, and I've taken the Gliem online school once. I like the idea of taking a lesson every once in a while and just following boards like this.
 
avoiding the cliché about the "PPL being a license to learn" I rely on the quality training I was fortunate to receive, thinking that in that bag of knowledge is either the answer to the question at hand or the skill to resolve those I don't. I fly with an instructor at least once a year to make sure I'm not picking up any bad habits... and other than that, I don't fear what I don't know, because at this point, I don't know that I don't know it...
 
Dan Thomas said:
What you cannot know and what you do not know are two different things. There are many dead pilots who did not know the knowable things they should have known. Their ignorance killed them.

Dan
Click to expand...

Fully agree. Of course the song's not going to be 100% accurate but it's pretty true overall for me at least. Comparing my life to others, financial situations, etc. I am also a worrier but I've been working on calming down for years :yes:
 
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