Unending Self-Discovery

To the winged warrior the stick becomes as a Samurai sword, and the sky becomes a practice. Every flight is new, and the more we fly, the more we discover. What is not needed falls away, and your inner art of airmanship becomes masterful.

Reading all the pages here will not make you a better pilot, and certainly will not explain what Zen or peak performance psychology is about. However, if you put the thoughts into action, over time, you will fly more surely. You will begin to see how full of discovery flying can be, and how fully learning one thing can then be positively applied to other areas of your life.

Psychologists now routinely refer to three kinds of 'work orientation': a job, a career and a calling (Wrzesniewski, et al., 1997). A job is something you do just for the money. Your real life is all away from the job. I've had jobs like stocking supermarket shelves and selling cars. A career is something more. People who see themselves as having a career have a deeper personal investment in their work, and mark their achievements not only through pay, but with prestige and promotions. They invest more into their work than the uninterested job holder, and see themselves as getting more in return. It is a distinction you make; selling cars or stocking supermarket shelves both could be careers.

The happiest people see themselves as having a calling. It's a passionate commitment to the work for its own sake. The effort they expend becomes its own reward.

While the origin of the phrase 'calling' is religious (you are 'called' to do God's work) and maybe conjures in your mind images of artists living by the sea or doctors working in Africa, this work calling is a solid fact of the human condition. You can view your work as drudgery, or as a method to advance in your social life. Your choice. Or you can start to see the greater whole. Entry-level street cleaners make our world beautiful, airline pilots bring families together and make global business a reality. Then by really paying attention, making the work meaningful, the inner rewards will come.

For me I needed to understand again the importance and ultimate responsibility of my position as an airline captain. From an attitude of just driving the bus, to acknowledging the awesome responsibility placed in me by trusting passengers. I transport leaders and stars, and parents on the way to show baby to the new grandparents for the first time. I needed to awaken to the endless opportunities for growth in learning to fly at a higher level. I love flying. I have found my calling.

The most successful basketball coach of all time, Phil Jackson, wrote in his book Sacred Hoops that,

"Most rookies arrive in the NBA thinking that what will make them happy is having unlimited freedom to strut their egos on national TV. But that approach to the game is an inherently empty experience. What makes basketball so exhilarating is the joy of losing yourself completely in the dance, even if it's just for one beautiful transcendent moment."

When I read this I thought of all the airline pilots that went to flight school dreaming about making millions of dollars flying on autopilot to exotic foreign cities twice a month while being served first-class meals by pretty flight attendants. After a while, it becomes Phil's inherently empty experience. The joy of flying is in the flying. You must actively engage to find the magic. You will eventually have complete clarity seeing what is yours to do, then readily surrender to just doing it.

You might have heard the phrase 'Right Stuff' used to describe superior pilot skills. It was coined by author Tom Wolfe in his landmark book of the beginning of the astronaut program. It is often now used as a shorthand for a natural pilot. But that is simplistic. Apollo 7 astronaut and Marine Corps fighter pilot Walter Cunningham said the original definition came as close to describing what sets flying apart as an art, as a science, as a way of living:

"The main thing to know about an astronaut, if you want to understand his psychology, is not that he's going into space but that he is a flyer and has been in that game for 15 or 20 years. It's like a huge and very complex pyramid, miles high, and the idea is to prove at every foot of the way up that pyramid that you are one of the elected and anointed ones that have the right stuff." (Cunningham, 1977.)

"The right stuff is not bravery in the simple sense; it is bravery in the most sophisticated sense. Any fool can put his hide on the line and throw his life away in the process. The idea is to be able to put your hide on the line—and then to have the moxie, the reflexes, the talent, the experience, to pull it back in at the last yawning moment—and then to be able to go out again the next day and do it all over again—and, in its best expression, to be able to do it in some cause, in some calling that means something."

In his excellent book Redefining Airmanship Tony Kern talks of four levels of pilot skill. The first level is safety, which by definition is reached by every private pilot or primary flight training graduate. Safe enough to be let loose alone into the sky. The second level is effectiveness, which must be reached by a commercial pilot for a line check, a military pilot for mission qualification, or for sport pilots it would be the ability to handle cross-county flying in a range of weather. Kern says that, "Many flyers see little reason to develop additional skills beyond this effectiveness level. Motivation to develop beyond this level must come from within."

For those that continue to study and practice and think, a third skill level is achieved. They can fly efficiently, saving fuel or time or effort. It is more skill than is required, but it is the major stepping stone to mastery. It is where our art of flying starts to be seen. After adding and adding, you now start to pare down. Eliminate the unnecessary. Do only what is rightly required. Almost correct the first time, followed by a small correction and then peace. Downwind to base to final becomes one gently decelerating smooth curve like the sun setting.

Dr Kern identifies a forth skill level by precision approaching perfection. Few aviators ever reach this level. It is the inner art of airmanship. Master of the wing. Authority without domination. You must seek perfection as "a continuing motivation for personal improvement." You exceed the skill levels, you top the motivation pyramid. By not flying two knots too fast, by sitting peacefully in the flow, ready for the zone, in complete control but relaxed looking at the clouds, you have made flying an Inner Art. Your cockpit has a window to the world and an insight into the human condition.

Sam said the Japanese would recognize this forth level as Shibumi, which he said is effortless perfection. You can't work that hard all at once he said. It takes time, you have to learn and forget, you have to internalize and let your habits make you. Flying becomes a path to perfect harmony in motion.

When asked what makes a good pilot, philosopher of flight Richard Bach once answered, "Four things: Judgment, judgment, judgment and the ability to see the air the way a river-rat sees the water." For good judgment you must consider all the facts, and apply rules and values without cheating or letting your ego be larger than the sky. Keep making effort to learn all you can, and to just do what is right. As a safety warrior, you take pride in choosing the right path. As a Samurai held his code of conduct—the Bushido—above all else, you must hold your proud aeronautical honor code above all else. Do not allow the powerful forces of management, ego, saving face, looking good, being cool, getting there on time, or whatever cloud your clear decision making skills.

You are the pilot-in-command. Of the airplane, of yourself.

Simon Meade, when he was RAF Red Arrow aerobatic team Squadron Leader, laid it out in black and white: "if we don't strive for perfection from the very start, what do we strive for?" Major Jeremy Sloane, USAF Thunderbird pilot said in 2006 that, "no matter how precise we fly, there is always room for improvement." Neil Armstrong, fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut and at age 75 still a glider pilot, said in a CBS TV interview he works for, "self satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment, trying to do a little better than you think you possibly can." Debby Rihn-Harvey, who has over 25,000 hours aloft as a Southwest Airlines captain, unlimited aerobatics champion and flight instructor put it this way, "It is you against perfection, not against anyone else. I've never flown a perfect flight in 25 years. . . . I feel too many people are so mechanical when they learn to fly, and if I can make them feel as if they are one with the airplane I feel as if I've done a service and given back to aviation some of what it has given me."

As you continue to learn, continue to practice, the mechanical feeling will start to disappear. Your awkward old self will get out the way of your smooth pilot self. You naturally come to treat the cockpit with respect as a learning place, a dojo. You are flying just to fly. You are soaking up new experiences on every flight. You are concentrating on every task, bring right mindness to bear. You work on areas you know are weak, whether it is the electrical system or CRM or letting your eye and hands fly the approach while your mind is a monitor. Let both sides of the brain go flying. Although you are nothing special, you sometimes have a 'white moment' where you get in the zone when hand-flying. Then you may often feel that your 'no-mind' flying is a fully engaged flow state. It gets better from here. It gets harmonious, unified, and effortless.

This point of starting to see the full potential is where I was when I lost contact with Sam. He talked to me of being a mirror. He talked of all the words and all the techniques falling away. Of becoming a sky where clouds and mountains are just clouds and mountains.

If you work hard to get to this stage, you have been changed. You are not an amateur, a hacker, or a dilettante. You are a master. A true safety warrior. The process will have changed you. You know now what only warriors and artists who have invested their whole selves into a practice can know. The world of the painter is not the world of the art critic. The world of the pilot is not the world of the passenger.

Sam loved the imagery of snow falling on trees. Christmas card stuff. So much heavy snow that stiff old oaks will eventually crack under the weight. However the flexible willow will bend and bend and bend. And then at some point the snow will simply slide off and the willow springs back up. Alive. It does it all without thought. Blending with nature. Accepting the changing, changeless river. You know who you are as an individual and simultaneously are invisibly, yet palpably, connected with the All. In this state, your creative power is limitless. Sam babbled sometimes of oceans of air, of not feeling or knowing, but somehow letting the plane kiss the concrete. Not only were the passengers unaware of when they touched the ground, so was the pilot.

I told Sam of such a landing I had experienced in the ATR. It felt great. I asked him what I should do after flowing into the zone for a landing where the flight attendant's call up to say the passengers are clapping. He looked at me like I was stupid, and said, "the after landing checklist."

Kata Oh Manna Dey, Kata Oh Kwey Ta was a favorite phrase of Matsuo Basho, and directly translates as learn form then exceed. The Japanese are not the only people to understand this idea. An Italian saying puts it this way, Impara l'arte, e mettila da parte, which means learn the art, then put it aside. The idea here is learn the rules so well that you can forget them. They are part of you. The master artist has learnt the rules of color and perspective and shadow so well she just paints what she sees in her eyes and her heart. The master pilot has learnt aerodynamics and flight control systems so well he just joins the downwind and lands. We are flying into special realms of space and time through total absorption in the work.

Nina Ananiashvili is an incredible prima ballerina who was a soloist with the Bolshoi Ballet and guest performer with the New York City Ballet. Sickly as an infant, her parents enrolled the toddler in figure skating lessons in an effort to improve her health. She thrived. At age six she started practicing ballet. At ten she was accepted into the Moscow Choreographic Institute. She practiced ballet five hours a day, six days a week. As an adult, she continued to practice every day. It is hard to imagine that much practice. Literally a lifetime of learning. But like all true master craftsmen she grow past the teachings and the practice. In a filmed interview she said about performing, "when the time comes I forget what I've learned. I dance between the notes."

Sterling Moss, Legendary British motor racing champion put it this way, "you have to be part of the car. It's no longer that you're in a car and doing something with it, that's why I refer to this as a complete entity. If things are right, it is complete."  (Manso, 1969.).  Be the plane. One with the wing.

I showed my sort-of-finished notes about Inner Flying to F. E. Potts, a true master pilot who wrote the book F. E. Potts' Guide To Bush Flying. He was kind enough to write me back:

"Flying is an inward journey, and a thinking person's game. With a guy like me, where flying was merged into the arctic environment and I was more at home at the controls of my planes than anywhere else, it does reach a depth that isn't found in more mundane flying. The computer hackers find it is necessary to fall into "hack mode" on touching the keyboard if one is to reach the highest levels, and much the same is true with the best pilots. As one settles behind the controls all else should fall away and there should only be the present moment and its smooth integration into the past and future of the flight as one flow."

"I never speak of Zen or anything like that in reference to flying, because it should be unnecessary to reach outside your self into other realms. There is a certain pleasure in settling behind the controls of a bush plane (say, a Super Cub), lifting off a rough gravel bar, and flying just a few feet above the trees and river bottoms to some remote area where one can land and get out and wander around without another human within hundreds of miles of where you are at. In the end, it is the contentment, the silence, and the inner peace that come with the life of a wilderness bush pilot that are its best reward."

So it was this letter, received after Sam had left, that showed me that when the plane and pilot become one, when you are the mirror reflecting the nature of the sky and the machine—at that time the Twelve Flights and all the other thoughts of arête and psychology will also fall away. And I shall be back again in the cockpit. Turning switches. Checking gauges. Flying airplanes.

Katte, kabuto no o o shime yo. This is a Samurai battle cry that can be translated as 'after victory, tighten your helmet cords.' You may have won this battle, but be prepared for the next. And the next. For the battle with the sky, and the ego, is never ending.

Enjoy the journey. Surrender to the grace that is given. One with the wing. Flying from A to B and all inner points in-between.

Many people have the ambition to succeed; they may even have a special aptitude for their job. And yet they do not move ahead. Why? Perhaps they think that since they can master the job, there is no need to master themselves.

— John Stevenson

Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.

— Bruce Lee

Wisdom is different from intelligence and comes more slowly. Intelligence enables you to learn about things, from books and other resources of information. Wisdom enables you to understand people, and you acquire it from living. You see many intelligent young people, but few wise ones.

— James H. Doolittle

To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Way is not far from man; if we take the Way as something superhuman, beyond man, this is not the real way.

— Confucius

I may be flying a complicated airplane, rushing through space, but in this cabin I'm surrounded by simplicity and thoughts set free of time. How detached the intimate things around me seem from the great world down below. How strange is this combination of proximity and separation. That ground — seconds away — thousands of miles away. This air, stirring mildly around me. That air, rushing by with the speed of a tornado, an inch beyond. These minute details in my cockpit. The grandeur of the world outside. The nearness of death. The longness of life.

— Charles A. Lindbergh

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

— Ursula K. LeGuin

Discipline is based on pride, on meticulous attention to details, and on mutual respect and confidence. Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than the excitement of the goal or the fear of failure.

— Gary Ryan Blair

A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action.

— Samurai maxim

Ah, mastery ... what a profoundly satisfying feeling when one finally gets on top of a new set of skills ... and then sees the light under the new door those skills can open, even as another door is closing.

— Gail Sheehy

Man is a thinking reed but his great works are done when he is not calculating and thinking. "Childlikeness" has to be restored with long years of training in the art of self-forgetfullness. When this is attained, man thinks, yet he does not think. He thinks like the showers coming down from the sky; he thinks like the waves rolling on the ocean.

— Daisetz T. Suzuki

You must work very hard to become a natural golfer.

— Gary Player

The inner being is what takes you to another level.

— Greg Norman

Harmony comes gradually to a pilot and his plane. The wing does not want so much to fly true as to tug at the hands that guide it; the ship would rather hunt the wind than lay her nose to the horizon far ahead. She has a derelict quality in her character; she toys with freedom and hints at liberation, but yields her own desires gently.

— Beryl Markham

Doing work which has to be done over and over again helps us recognize the natural cycles of growth and decay, of birth and death, and thus become aware of the dynamic order of the universe.  'Ordinary' work, as the root meaning of the term indicates, is work that is in harmony with the order we perceive in the natural environment.

— Fritjof Capra

To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill.

— Sun Tzu

You have to eat your technique. Digest it. Eliminate it so it's a part of yourself, it's in your blood, but you're not concerned with it anymore.

— Tom Robbins

There is freedom from desire and sorrow at the end of the way. The awakened one is free from all fetters and goes beyond life and death. Like a swan that rises from the lake, with her thoughts at peace, she moves onward, never looking back. The one who understands the unreality of all things, and who has laid up no store, that one’s track is unseen, as of birds in the air. Like a bird in the air, she takes an invisible course, wanting nothing, storing nothing, knowing the emptiness of all things.

— The Dhammapada

The mind of a perfect man is like a mirror. It grasps nothing. It expects nothing. It reflects but does not hold. Therefore, the perfect man can act without effort.

— Chuang Tzu

Although the sea was my greatest enemy, it was also my greatest ally. I know intellectually that the sea is indifferent, but her richness allowed me to survice.

— Steve Callahan

The secret principle of all disciplines is that by training, training falls away. By forgetting about training and sloughing off your own mind, you will be all the more unaware of your self, and the place you thus come to is the perfection of the Way.

— Yagyu

The final state of any discipline is where you forget what you have learned, discard your mind, and accomplish whatever you set out to do without being aware of it yourself. You begin by learning and reach the point where learning does not exist.

— Heiho Kaden Sho

The life so short, the craft so long to learn.

— Hippocrates

My last flight with Sam

The single thing which makes any man happiest is the realization that he has worked up to the limits of his ability, his capacity.

— Neil Armstrong

If thou shouldst say, "It is enough, I have reached perfection," all is lost.  For it is the function of perfection to make one know one's imperfection.

— Saint Augustine

You can't learn to fly capably in a day; you can't learn to fly well in a year; and you can't learn to fly perfectly in a lifetime. Learning to fly is a constant struggle toward mastering yourself, your machine, and the environment. During those moments when I began to think I had attained some competence at maneuvering a ton of fabric and sheet metal from airport to airport, there was always a new challenge that tempered the joy in my joystick. That's because mastery is an ideal, not a goal.

— Rod Machado

It is not with metal that the pilot is in contact. Contrary to the vulgar illusion, it is thanks to the metal, and by virtue of it, that the pilot rediscovers nature. . . . The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The highest art form of all is a human being in control of himself and his airplane in flight, urging the spirit of a machine to match his own.

— Richard Bach

The 8th of July mission was the most intense, the most exciting mission that I ever flew. Everything worked. During that minute and 29 seconds I drew on all my life experiences. Every part of my training and education came together in that moment and it worked. Few people ever experience that moment where everything jells. It's a feeling that is hard to describe.

— Steve Ritchie, the only U.S. Air Force pilot ace of the Vietnam War, describing a complicated engagement that lasted 89 seconds during which he (along with his Radar Intercept Officer Charles DeBellevue) shot down two MiG 21's.

In the midst of a vast wilderness, far off, standing all alone, is a high mountain. You are sitting on open ground on top of the mountain, looking off into the distance in all directions. There are no boundaries.

As you sit, you fill the world.
Relaxing and releasing body and mind,
You abide in the Buddha-realm.

— Hongren

I just want to continue to push. To just become as good as I possibly can be, to see what other aspects of the game I can get better at. 'Cuz you know, it's fun. I just enjoy doing it, so when you enjoy doing it, you wanna find out new ways to do it.

I am going to work extremely hard. I'm not going to cheat the game. I am going to take all the steps and do all the work necessary. It's like, God blessed me with the ability to do this, I'm not going to shortchange that blessing. I'm going to go out there and do the best that I can every single time.

— Kobe Bryant

I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

— William Ernest Henley

How boundless and free is the sky of Samadhi

— Hakuin

The magic of the craft has opened for me a world in which I shall confront . . . the black dragons and the the crowded crests of a coma of blue lightnings, and when night has fallen I, delivered, shall read my course in the stars.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 

Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence brings about wealth and all other public and private blessings for men.

— Socrates

It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you have wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane.

— Charles Lindbergh