Andy Borgmann's Blog

This week I "officially" started a process I have been working on for four years: getting my pilots license. I have literally logged thousands of hours on a flight simulator, and spent hundreds of hours reading Tech/Ops posts from Airliners.net, all in attempts to teach myself how to fly.

I took a practice test this week and scored at 65% with having no ground school (passing is 75%). I am very proud of this, but I digress.

But there is something far more profound than my self-centered pride going on here. In Gordan MacKenzie's book Orbiting the Giant Hairball he has an entire chapter that is eight (8) words long and it goes like this:

Orville Wright did not have a pilot's license
Orbiting the Giant Hairball, Page 191

This point is brilliant and its simplicity makes it all the more brilliant. Orville Wright was not certified, not educated, nor trained in the ways of aviation. But he and his brother made the single largest impact in aviation history because they weren't afraid of what they didn't know.

Too often times I think people fear so much of what they don't know. They take no risk, and therefore experience very little. We are not called to know everything - this point rings all too true in my spelling ability, singing ability, and many other abilities. But living by fear should never be an option. My uncle use to tell me as a child if you aren't learning you're dying. As I have gotten older I think that rings all the more true. So for now, like Orville, I too have no pilots license, but I look forward to see the impact not being afraid of having no pilots license brings in years to come.