The Golden Rule of Aviation

This is going to be brief, but if you are just getting into flying airplanes, what I am about to share will better prepare you to be in the right headspace. Science tells us that when we prepare ourselves mentally, painful realities can be easier to swallow. So here it is:

EVERYTHING in aviation will ALWAYS 1) take longer than planned or expected, and 2) will be more expensive than anticipated.

It doesn't take a big imagination to visualize what this might look like, but here are a few examples:

• Did the flight school tell you it would take 3 months to go from zero to Private Pilot? It will probably take at least 4-5 months. Weather, maintenance, unexpected life events, scheduling problems, staffing problems, etc. can and do get in the way.
• Did you budget out $8,000 to finish your license? You will probably need a couple thousand more dollars to get everything finished up after your flight school raised rental rates and you had to switch to the more expensive examiner because the original one went on vacation.
• Your XC flight is estimated to take 1.5 hours, so you can probably make it home in time to make that dinner date. But guess what? Your pre-flight revealed you needed to add more oil, and it took you 20 minutes to acquire a bottle of Aeroshell because the FBO employee was on break. Actual headwinds were also much stronger than forecast, and this slowed you down considerably. It also increased hobbs time, so your bill was $50 more expensive than planned.

Sometimes you will feel like you can outpace or outsmart the Golden Rule, and you might - occasionally and temporarily. But it will always come back around, and for the sake of your sanity, its always best to go into any aviation-related activity with this Golden Rule in mind so that when it inevitably proves to be true over and over, your expectations have already been set to anticipate and (hopefully) accept it.

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