I’ve had a few people say to me “why do I have to learn about the engine and how it operates? I just want to fly the plane, not build one! Do you have to be a mechanic before you drive your car?” I admit, many years ago when I was learning, I had the same questions about learning weather and weather charts. I would say that I didn’t want to be a weather man; I wanted to be a pilot.
What people don’t realize is that you have to know a lot of things to be a pilot. When you drive your car during heavy rain, you have to worry about your clean car getting wet. When your car dies or won’t start, you leave it where you found it and get it towed. It’s an inconvenience at most. Flying in heavy rain, at minimum, could mean you won’t be able to see anything. Your plane running rough or stopping completely doesn’t give you the option to just pull off to the side and call someone.You need to know the plane. You need to know the weather. These are just 2 examples, there are many more.
If your plane is running rough, wouldn’t it be nice to have an idea of what could be causing it so you can problem solve and hopefully keep things from getting worse? Better yet, how about knowing what is going on so you can minimize the chances of it ever happening in the first place! When you learn to fly, you will be tested thoroughly. The FAA is using scenario based testing now. This means that the examiner won’t be asking you simple questions like, “what does a low oil pressure indication mean?” He will give you a real life scenario to test your knowledge and your ability to recall the right knowledge at the right time in order to solve a problem.
A simple example would be, “you’re flying along to go visit your mother when you happen to notice that the engine seems to be running a little rougher than normal, what are you going to do?” This isn’t an easy answer because there are so many variables. If you didn’t know anything about your engine, you’d be lost. But if you knew about your engine and about all the things that could affect it’s performance, you’d be able to narrow down the possible problems and maybe even solve the problem right then before it gets worse.
Your passengers will be relying on you for their safety, just as you rely on an airline pilot for yours. If there were a bunch of warning lights coming on in the airline cockpit, wouldn’t you want your pilot to be able to figure it out? Learning to fly is fun, but there are things you will have to study and learn about that may be more of a sleep aid! If you stick it out and take the fun with the not so fun, your reward will be great!