Flag Waving, Back Slapping, and Wild Cheering.

Being an advocate isn’t all about flag waving, back slapping, and wild cheering. Sometimes it’s necessary to provide a bit of cold water to the audience, much like when your flight instructor turns to you after a lesson and says, “That was okay, but we’re going to have to work on maintaining altitude a little more consistently in your steep turns.”

The instructor isn’t saying you suck. He (or she) isn’t saying your hopeless. They’re merely saying that you need to focus a bit, work on improving a weakness that can be identified, and more than that – they’re telling you that you’re not in this alone. You’ve got a friend who can help you. A friend that is motivated to help you. So reach out, grab a hold of their offer to assist and take it.

That’s the gist of this week’s Politics for Pilots column in General Aviation News. It runs with the catchy title, “Cannibalism: a cautionary tale.”

With a title like that, you want to read it, don’t you? Go ahead, click the link, read the piece, leave a comment. Your perspective might be the one that pulls this whole thing together.