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Posted over 9 years ago

How Pilot Training lessons have helped me in Real Estate #2

Things happen pretty quickly while you’re flying a plane, so you don’t exactly have the time to pull out a calculator or do trigonometry in your head. Lucky for me, some brilliant pilots from generations ago developed a number of quick and easy formulas that can be done in your head in a matter of seconds. We like to call this “Pilot Math.”

Back in pilot training, we learned about the 60-to-1 rule. This rule can be used in a number of different situations from course corrections, to wind drift, to estimating ground speed and descent profiles. However, I like to think that it has some very valid life implications as well.

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So for all of you left-brainers out there, lets start with a quick overview of the math behind it.

The basic premise of the 60-to-1 rule is that it relates your distance from a point to your distance along an arc. Lets take this circle over here and assume that its circumference is 360 miles (to make it easy).

Normal 1419173580 1 Degree Arc

We all know that the circumference of a circle is 2(pie) r. So in order to find the radius, we must divide 360 by 2(pie).

360 / 2(3.14) = 57.3

The radius of this circle is 57.3 miles…but let’s round up for fun to 60 because it sounds better. So why does all this matter?

Lets assume a pilot takes off from point A enroute to point B, which is 60 miles away. If he takes the appropriate heading from the start, he will arrive perfectly at his destination in 60 miles. However, if he is off by only one small degree when he takes off, he will miss his target be a whole mile laterally! We know that this rule applies when flying, but it also applies to life in general.

Small corrections made now can pay huge dividends in the future.

Here are a few small corrections that I’ve made in my life now…so that I don’t find myself miles off of target in 60 years.

  1. 1) Began investing in Real Estate :-)
  2. 2) Created a goal board with yearly checkpoints
  3. 3) Got myself a Bigger Pockets PRO account
  4. 4) Started using Quickbooks
  5. 5) Began reading a book a month

If anyone else has some small corrections that they’ve made in their life, please feel free to share in the comments.

Best of luck to you!

Sincerely,

Tyler



Comments (2)

  1. Nice article! Something that's helped me with finances is getting a Personal Capital account. Free and very easy to use. It's a great way to see all your accounts in one place. I haven't used Quickbooks before so it may be better for the business side of things, but Personal Capital is great for seeing where your money is going.


  2. very insightful and in agreement with the analogy. Thanks for sharing.