{"id":2836,"date":"2014-04-24T10:26:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T17:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","slug":"chickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/chickens\/","title":{"rendered":"#102 Chickens"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bert's<\/a>
Photo by Bert Garrison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Some of my expressions get used a lot.\u00a0 They also prove to be fodder for good-natured ribbing on the part of my friends and students.\u00a0 As is often the case, many of these expressions are actually \u201ctruisms\u201d.\u00a0 They are well-used simply because they are so often accurate.\u00a0 One of them comes to mind:\u00a0 The \u201cChicken Coming Home to Roost\u201d.<\/h5>\n
It occurs to me that there are both good chickens and bad chickens. Let\u2019s say that a pilot has a tendency to skid his turn from base to final.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty common tendency, one that I see all the time.\u00a0 It\u2019s likely that several instructors have had the opportunity to correct this tendency but, for one reason or another, have failed to do so.\u00a0 One day the guy skids that turn , overshoots the centerline, hauls back the stick to get the nose back up and regain the glide path, then suddenly spins into the ground, killing himself and destroying a very nice airplane.\u00a0 A bad chicken has returned to its roost.<\/h5>\n
Another pilot has suffered an engine failure over some rough country.\u00a0 He spots a clearing that is barely suitable for a landing.\u00a0 He heads for it.\u00a0 He sets up a circling approach and makes about three turns over the site as he plans his landing.\u00a0 With only about three hundred feet left, he adjusts his circle, turns the last 180 degrees with a steep, well-coordinated turn and slides into the tight spot with room to spare.\u00a0 A good chicken has settled, with minimal flapping, onto its roost.<\/h5>\n
These metaphoric chickens are linked to several things that make them at once complex and important.\u00a0 They are metaphors for training, consisting of a very real link back to an instructor who has either let the student down or provided him with a grounding that will serve him well for his entire flying career.\u00a0 They are also metaphors for the flier\u2019s own attitude, setting the stage for his own search for enlightenment\u2026 or his disregard for it.<\/h5>\n
We may not realize it, but we all have this flock o\u2019 chickens that we cart around with us.\u00a0 They are all flying around, but at the end of the day they will return to their roost.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just hope that they are all good chickens. \u00a0We\u2019ll lop off the heads of the bad ones and serve \u2018em up in a stew!<\/h5>\n
Happy Swooping (and flapping)<\/h5>\n
Brian<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of my expressions get used a lot.\u00a0 They also prove to be fodder for good-natured ribbing on the part of my friends and students.\u00a0 As is often the case, many of these expressions are actually \u201ctruisms\u201d.\u00a0 They are well-used simply because they are so often accurate.\u00a0 One of them comes to mind:\u00a0 The \u201cChicken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,60,67,158,173,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}