Pilot's Discretion from Sporty's
Jun 30, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
Pilots should aspire to a higher standard than just passing the checkride, according to author and instructor Rick Durden. He explains how to be one of these “thinking pilots,” pursuing excellence…
Rick DurdenGuestJohn ZimmermanHostHe's an accomplished aviation attorney, but more importantly for Pilot's Discretion, he is a prolific safety journalist and author, including the highly acclaimed The Thinking Pilot's Flight Manual series.
Over a flying career spanning more than 50 years, he has logged time in over 200 aircraft types, instructed on wheels, skis, and floats, and flown some demanding volunteer conservation missions across the Americas.
He has been honored with the prestigious Endeavor Award for his public benefit flying, has been the editor of multiple aviation magazines, and these days you can read his latest musings at Avbrief.
Your first book is a modern classic for pilots, I think, and it's titled The Thinking Pilot's Flight Manual, or How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing It.
It's a great title, and I wanna dig into a couple pieces there, starting with what does it mean to be a thinking pilot?
What's happening now? What am I gonna do next? What comes after that? Uh, where's the wind blowing from? If I'm taxiing, I wanna have a mental picture of where the wind is so that I can position the ailerons and the elevators correctly, so I don't look stupid on an N- NTSB report.
It's just putting your best self, uh, together every time you get in an airplane.
I'm gonna take three seconds or a minute just to look at the panel, think about the speeds needed, think about the systems, so that I am in tune with this airplane and, uh, when it talks to me, I'll be able to listen."
And is that something you can teach during primary training, or is this just something you learn through experience?
I think you can teach it, and one of the first ways is to teach students to hold the controls with their fingertips, to, to not squeeze them.
And as I tell them, no matter how tight- tightly they squeeze, they can't get juice out of the plastic.
So if you are touching the controls gently, you'll get the feedback from the airplane.
Uh, engine starts to run rough, you're gonna feel it in your fingers and, uh, other parts of your body.
You, um, you get used to your airplane, and the engine tells you that, "Hey, something's wrong," or, uh, "We're up at high altitude and I'm way over rich on the mixture, and we're not performing well." So there's...
He's an accomplished aviation attorney, but more importantly for Pilot's Discretion, he is a prolific safety journalist and author, including the highly acclaimed The Thinking Pilot's Flight Manual series.
Over a flying career spanning more than 50 years, he has logged time in over 200 aircraft types, instructed on wheels, skis, and floats, and flown some demanding volunteer conservation missions across the Americas.
He has been honored with the prestigious Endeavor Award for his public benefit flying, has been the editor of multiple aviation magazines, and these days you can read his latest musings at Avbrief.
Your first book is a modern classic for pilots, I think, and it's titled The Thinking Pilot's Flight Manual, or How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing It.
It's a great title, and I wanna dig into a couple pieces there, starting with what does it mean to be a thinking pilot?
What's happening now? What am I gonna do next? What comes after that? Uh, where's the wind blowing from? If I'm taxiing, I wanna have a mental picture of where the wind is so that I can position the ailerons and the elevators correctly, so I don't look stupid on an N- NTSB report.
It's just putting your best self, uh, together every time you get in an airplane.
I'm gonna take three seconds or a minute just to look at the panel, think about the speeds needed, think about the systems, so that I am in tune with this airplane and, uh, when it talks to me, I'll be able to listen."
And is that something you can teach during primary training, or is this just something you learn through experience?
I think you can teach it, and one of the first ways is to teach students to hold the controls with their fingertips, to, to not squeeze them.
And as I tell them, no matter how tight- tightly they squeeze, they can't get juice out of the plastic.
So if you are touching the controls gently, you'll get the feedback from the airplane.
Uh, engine starts to run rough, you're gonna feel it in your fingers and, uh, other parts of your body.
You, um, you get used to your airplane, and the engine tells you that, "Hey, something's wrong," or, uh, "We're up at high altitude and I'm way over rich on the mixture, and we're not performing well." So there's...
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