Flying Lesson #1: Attitude Is Everything

I'm sure you've seen pictures of an airplane's instrument panel; even in a small plane it's impressive. All those gauges and dials, flashing lights and warning buzzers.

You have gauges to tell you how high you are, how fast you're going, how much fuel you have ---- that's a handy one.

But the one I like the best is the attitude indicator.

The attitude of a plane is: you are either nose up or nose down, going straight or turning. Kind of like the attitude in people. Either things are always looking up or always looking down; going smoothly or turning sour. You know people like that don't you?

But somehow we justify our bad attitude, don't we? Well, if they hadn't done this to me I wouldn't be in such a bad mood. If my boss weren't such a jerk, I would be happier.

In flying we don't have that luxury.

A bad attitude must be corrected immediately if we want to get to our destination safe and sound. Remember, as long as we make an excuse for something, like a bad attitude, we can't get over it.

As a pilot, you continuously scan your instruments in a systematic way. It is drilled in you during training.

You remain alert at all times and make sure you're headed in the right direction. If you notice the plane's attitude changing, something is wrong; you evaluate the situation and make a choice to correct it.

Just as in life. When we become aware of our "bad attitude" we must correct it or otherwise...we crash and burn.

I remember one flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in my Cherokee 150 when I became distracted by looking down at the map on my lap and heard my wife asking me: "Are you sure we're headed in the right direction?"

I was gently making a turn to the left. A change of attitude that was so gentle it was almost unnoticeable. "OOPS!!" I said sheepishly!! my ego wounded...and got back on course. My plane didn't have an automatic pilot. That's a gadget for the rich people's planes!

You and I, we can make that same choice about life. Figure out what's going wrong and make the necessary corrections to get it back on track, back on our true heading: our goal and mission in life.

That means, looking up to our true heading: God.

BIBLE: I like 1Peter 5:8-9 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith....

On that flight my wife remained alert when the devil wind, together with a slight heavy left foot on the rudder pedal, made me go off track.

Faith in the plane and my training got me back on course easily, as if nothing had happened. No issues; only a bruised ego and a laugh!

I get reminded, now and then. ZAP!! And we laugh.

TO BE CONTINUED