By Rod Douglas 

I love a challenge, always have really. It’s the thing that keeps me feeling really alive with adrenalin coursing through the veins: the intensity of focus, the business of the brain and the coordination of the body all required to conquer whatever that challenge is.

hen I learnt to fly there was a clear and present path to keep the novice pilot challenged. We all remember the stream of them flowing before us. Straight and level, balanced turns and rolling onto a heading ally, had their moments of challenge before the true basics of fl ight emerged into a satisfi ed sense of having a modicum of control over the aircraft.

Each challenge resulted in a new level of overload that would eventually be integrated into a skill. The fi rst landing, when instead of you following through with your instructor he followed through with you. That amazing feeling when the instructor said, “pull over and let me out, you’re ready to solo”. I still remember that moment 20 years ago. Knowing as you applied the throttle that it was truly up to you.

Time goes on and the hours mount and the check ride comes and goes. For a while you’re happy to push your envelope, showing off your skills to friends and family and discovering just how dead reckoning dead reckoning actually is. I mean really, who hasn’t had that terrible experience of one minute thinking you knew exactly where you were and the next realising you are completely lost. That moment shifts you into high challenge with just that little bit more information that sends you into complete overload.

As you solve each of these challenges your confidence grows. They say if it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger and in aviation that’s clearly true. Each little step becomes the foundation for a big step. Another challenge needed. Let’s add constant speed, retractable gear, maybe a basic aerobatics rating. Some decide, as I did, that a commercial rating would make me a better pilot. Others add a command instrument rating.

Eventually it’s time to take on the really big one. The twin endorsement.

So what’s really different between a single and a twin? I’m not sure. After all, most of the light twins are a single fuselage with an extra donk bolted onto the wing. But there is something that a twin does for a pilot. I’ve watched it time and time again. Once they have their twin endorsement they suddenly stand a little taller, feel a little more important and see themselves on the way somewhere else.