thank you Ghoti
YES boot, it is a simplification...over or otherwise.
things should be simple.
I've seen really nutty things by people...I've taught flying (instructor, instrument instructor, multi engine instructor/atp) I've flown for 3 regionals and spent over 20 years at a big legacy carrier.
Stuff you wouldn't believe.
I've seen pilots use the control wheel to try to taxi(well below any aerodynamic effect and not in tail wheel aircraft). and suddenly yell...OOOPS.
I saw one woman student who was almost ready to be a private pilot suddenly lose every concept of flight. Entering a published downwind at 800' (correct pattern altitude) and just start to lose altitude over San Francisco bay....Day VFR mind you.
At 300 feet I asked her what was going on...she had suddenly gone clueless on the downwind...she honestly would have just flown into the bay in a perfectly good plane.
I had to see what was going on in her mind. So I had her exit the pattern and come back for another chance at a normal traffic pattern to a normal landing.
She did it again...Exactly the same even though I had briefed her on what went wrong the first time.
I took the plane and landed it. I held her hand and said: I can never trust you to fly a plane as pilot in command. I am not charging you for this lesson. but you must give up flying forever. Something just snapped in your mind and you could kill yourself, your passengers and or someone on the ground. You are intelligent, and a good person but you must give up flying.
I've seen airline captains head towards the wrong airport on a visual when they could easily back themselves up with radio nav.
I've seen people fill out scholarship paperwork for college while flying an airliner in the soup and miss a turn on an airway...thinking it was no big deal.
Nope...when we go into the sky we must be more vigilant than most people can ever be. We must be vigilant for our own human error and the dangers of the sky and our machine...and the others out there who would kill us by mistake because someone didn't tell them to give up the sky. boot