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Flight, Learning The Hard Way

Flight Blog
November 24th, 2021
Flight, Learning The Hard Way

There is a saying in aviation circles that goes like this “We all start out with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of wisdom.  The trick is to fill the bag of wisdom before you run out of luck.”BLOG_b17g-profile-phil-rispin.jpg
  Unfortunately, many of the lessons learned in flying airplanes are written in blood.  Flight is very unforgiving of even small errors.
One example resulted in the development of a simple thing called a “check list”.  In the 1930’s aircraft manufactures in the USA were in a competition to design an aircraft that would fill the need for a heavy bomber.  Boeing’s entry was the prototype Model 299/XB-17 that would eventually become the famed B-17.  In an early demonstration flight, a test aircraft crashed causing injury and death to the crew.  This almost sealed the fate of the Boeing Company that had invested so much time and money on the aircraft.   As it turned out the post-crash investigation showed that the pilot had neglected to remove the control locks prior to take-off making it impossible to control the airplane once it was airborne.
Boeing’s best and brightest had a meeting with the aim of solving the problem and they came up with the idea of using a written checklist, a simple piece of paper that would guide the pilot through all the phases of flight
Having solved the problem Boeing and other licensed US companies went on to build 12,731 B-17s in several variants.  
There are several places in scripture that look like check lists to be applied to our Christian life.  2nd Peter 1:5-7 is an example “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”
It would be good if, before we went to work in the morning, we checked that list.
 
 
 
 

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