8,500 Hours of Flight Time

That's how much training the pilot (Zobayan) who crashed the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his daughter and 7 others, had. And I wondered, how many hours of 'flight time' I had under my belt. I also mused that no matter how many hours of flight time you have you are never immune to having an accident no matter how good you are. The crucial difference here being that if I crash on my bike, it's rarely going to be life-threatening.

So, then, how may hours, how many months, how many years? For a fifty year old who has been cycling since he was a boy, it might take a little guesswork. But it should be around the mark. If we take an average of 2 hours every other day which makes an hour a day (which doesn't seem untoward), over a period of say thirty years (I took some time out during my college years and when working abroad), we would get a figure of around 365 hours x 30 which gives us 10,950 hours of total flight time. That's barely a couple of thousand hours more than Zobayan in his helicopter. 

According to author Malcolm Gladwell, 10,000 hours is the 'magic number of greatness'. To be sure, I feel great when I'm on my bike, but I don't consider myself as a harbinger of greatness. Such thoughts set one up for a fall, usually one involving broken bones, and I'd like to avoid that if I can. I consider myself proficient, not great. I know my way about on a bike, and I know how to go from A to B on one, but I still have slips and accidents. I am still very much aware that it can all go pear shaped at any moment if I'm not paying attention. I have only ever been out a couple of times, maybe three or four, where I have turned back because conditions were too severe. That's really saying something when cycling in Glasgow's temperate climate. But I guess a helicopter is a whole different ball game, one which a cyclist like me who has some degree of attachment to the ground, would not be happy getting into. I would suggest that even 100,000 hours of training in a helicopter would not prepare you for a whiteout or a sudden storm that reduces your vision to zero. The problem with helicopters is that unlike a bicycle, you can't just stop when conditions go topsy-turvy. You can't just get off and walk. In a helicopter, like so many other modern technological devices, there is no 'stop and get off'. And if there is no SAGO, then you're in trouble. Cause that means you're hooked into a technology that is navigating and moving for you.

To paraphrase Krishnamurti: it is no great measure of health to master a completely unnatural and contaminative way of moving. Better to remain natural. And the bicycle is that natural.

'Never fly unless you have wings' says the Buddha of Barscube Hill. Wiser words have never been said.