Pilots should practice cross country planning -- even on days when it does not look like a flight is possible due to weather. Call and get a weather briefing anyway. Get the wind and temperatures aloft so that you can still calculate the groundspeed and fuel requirements. Instructors, have your students practice making the Go/No Go decision. As an instructor I always go behind the student and get my own weather briefing.

Just like the weather, about which everybody jokes but against which no one ever takes action, there is another equally uncaring adversary. It is a mere mechanical foe, a simple instrument, and one that we don't really even need to keep in our scan to keep the shiny side up. But while we proudly total the growing hours in each succeeding page of our logbooks, we must first reconcile this sepulchral tally at the end of every flight. That opponent, gentle reader -- the Hobbs meter.

An airplane is a terrible classroom. It's noisy. It's cramped. It's hot -- or it's cold. It can be a high-pressure environment. It's difficult for the instructor to control training, because of weather, other traffic or airspace issues. And it's hard for students to "step back" from the physical tasks of controlling the airplane long enough to assimilate new information.

Students who learn to fly at controlled airports never know any different, but students who learn at an uncontrolled airport can develop a fear of the radio. All pilots must eventually get past the stage fright associated with the radio and get to the point where communications become conversational.