ORIGINAL: jester_s1

If it's ''elitist'' to think that learning a technique from someone with experience is better than screwing up on your own until you figure it out, then ok, many of us are elitists. I find that in nearly any discipline, there are people around that are simply anti-education. They somehow get the idea in their head that it's better to take twice and long and spend twice as much to get the same results than to let someone else who knows more tell them anything. It's a weird sort of narcissism that says, ''I'm better than you because I did it without any help.'' I knew some really ignorant hicks growing up in north Mississippi that would go on and on and on about how much better and smarter they were than the college educated types because of their learning by experience instead of reading books. They were wrong, and the wannabe savants among us are too.

Myself, I say enjoy the hobby however you want to as long as you're safe and don't cause a PR problem for the rest of us. The anti-education types also tend to be the anti-rules types, so I'd just as soon see them go do something else. But if they can obey the safety code and not embarrass the rest of us then by all means, they should go have a great time. I don't think I'm a better human being or necessarily even a better pilot because I learned from others. But I know I spent less time and money doing it that way and am glad I took advantage of others who were willing to explain things to me and help me get my skills right. Why anyone would turn their nose up at that is beyond my ability to comprehend, aside from the narcissism mentioned above.