30 top tips for successful cross-country flying
#7: "Always enjoy yourself"
NOVA Team Pilot Johann Kronberger (AUT) put for us in words, what isn't as easy to do as it might sound: Combine ambition with fun. He said: "Why do you fly? Most will answer: “because it’s great fun”. Secondary reasons will be experiencing the outdoors or concentrating on the here and now. What hardly anyone immediately admits is that recognition also plays a role.
Of course it is nice when you look at the XC league and you are ahead. But is this more important than the actual flying? I know a few pilots who are so ambitious that they often forget to have fun. If you sit down for a beer with them in the evening, they are in a bad mood – just because they didn‘t make the planned 250 km or somebody flew further than they did. It becomes even more extreme when one‘s own desperation for success is at the expense of safety. In the NOVA Pilots Team there is a clear instruction that we always want to put sanity and safety before success. I share this belief. If it weren‘t for that, the fun would literally fall by the wayside.
So, when a friend has a long face at the end of the day because they didn’t break the worldrecord, maybe it would be helpful to remind that person why he started flying in the first place. And anyway, you can always fly again. There’s always tomorrow!"