I've learned a lot of things watching threads here. Also immersing by reading here helps cement things I "know" but have only just learned. There is a lot to learn in ground school, and it helps a lot to keep reading the points to get them to stick.
Maybe especially since I am an American living in Norway, even though I have learned Norwegian it is not my native language and though Norwegian pilots are the same in that way all pilots are when hanging out, it IS nice for me to hang out with pilots in a virtual flight lounge/hanger and in Norwegian I still can miss nuances, where in English (American English) I catch a lot more. So it is this too that is so helpful for me. We Americans are a little different also in attitudes and what and how we share information, or argue
or state things. Even after 24 years here, I'm still American. This is more what I am used to.
Also have started a number of threads with specific questions about things I am iffy on, and received great help here and some members here have a way with words that helped me grasp things I was trying to understand. I am very glad to have found this forum.
The negatives, a lot of ****ing contests, but those too can be instructive. I never automatically take things here as gospel and if it seems to contradict my limited knowledge, I ask for more explanation but also talk with my CFI and take his word as final.
The one thing that continues to amaze me, the many concepts or rules, or standards that I naively thought would be un debatable, turns out aren't so straightforward. Even what I would have thought to be basic, like which lights on the aircraft one uses at different phases of flight and conditions. Or a good deal of procedures like use of checklists.
As a long time guitarist that has spent a lot of time on a guitar/music forum, I shouldn't be surprised as forums generally are like this.
I always have had a healthy respect for pilots and the knowledge, skill, and abilities but that has gone through the roof as I try to learn to fly. The range of things I'm learning, or trying to learn well, just upped the estimation.
I also am grateful for all the kind and helpful attitudes I have met here. Newbies like me can be a PITA and we often ask the same things (even though I do use searches to investigate topics, there are times I want to ask a specific thing in a certain way to understand it better) and there is a lot of patience and good responses from pilots I am very sure are expert and excellent pilots.
So, thanks to all of you. I have learned a to so far here, and will continue to.
