It is possibly true to say that, without a decent grounding in principles of flight, one might under certain circumstances find oneself in an aeroplane in a situation where it will not fly in a very friendly fashion. This could perhaps lead one quivering toward a messy demise. Unless one happens to be suffering from something such as an undetected aneurism, flying without a valid medical is not likely to have quite as drastic an effect. The parallel of trying to drive a car without any knowledge of the highway code whilst being quite content that the tax disc is up to date intrudes somewhat into the mind.
Admittedly, few either know or care as to the aerodynamics of that most useless creation, the golf ball, but for all that, one must be careful not to confuse the importance of theories in educational techniques with that of extraneous facts. Principles of lift and drag are theories which are both constructively informative and useful. A valid medical is a fact of life without which those principles cannot legally be demonstrated; although they can certainly be taught.
Speaking of sticks, one wonders vacuously as to the aerodynamics of a boomerang and its spiral dive tendencies which of course bear some relation to the further effects of aeroplane controls. Still, one has to agree and admit that matters which would boggle the poor student's eyeballs are best left to the ego exercises of the club room bar at the end of the day.
