NO MUSIC FOR ME, THANK YOU

Next time you are eating your favourite choccie while reading a good book, try see if you can enjoy both at exactly the same moment. It doesn’t really work, does it?

- JIM DAVIS

IN FACT, I AM TOLD by people who seem to know, that one can’t fully enjoy good food and good music simultaneously. Only one can have your undivided attention at a time. The word undivided pretty much clinches it.

What’s all this got to do with flying? Well, I was browsing through my favourite online aviation chat site the other day when I came across a discussion on what was the best way to listen to music while flying. That’s not a difficult question, you buy an airline ticket and use the best whiz-bang ear thingies you can afford.

But no, that’s not the answer the punters were looking for. It seems they were keen to be PIC of a 50 year old 210, Bonnie, or Boere Boeing, with a wandering autopilot, while giving their full attention to Beethoven. Hmmm not for me.

This feels so wrong, on so many levels, yet when I expressed this opinion on the forum I was shouted down by pretty much everyone. Most of my detractors thought it was an age thing, and rather rudely offered advice on how to drag myself into the current century, for which I failed to thank them.

But I am still on a roll, and I will tell you why in a moment, because you – dear reader – as they used to say, have two advantages, you are more intelligent than the mob I was dealing with, and you can’t answer back.

So here are my thoughts on the matter, and once you have bought into my argument, I will tell you a story which I think pretty much clinches it.