Prague, Italy, & California - Past, Present and Our AI Future

A whirlwind trip across countries and continents.  New adventures, friends, and technologies, juxtaposed with glimpses of the 1930s, offer a cautionary tale about Europe’s future.   And through it all, I am pondering the questions: Who am I? What is my deepest desire? 

Heading to Europe to attend the SFTE symposium in Prague, I visited Italy first.  My plan was to stay again in Venegono at La ManSardina with the hope of recreating my November experiences.  But as it was a long weekend to celebrate Italy’s Independence, I learned too late that my friends had made other plans.  I was disappointed. But recognized this as an opportunity to exercise Anthony Dello’s non-attachment and Eckhart Tolle’s “living in the now” philosophies.  

So the first night in Italy, I went out with Leonardo flight test colleagues for a fun dinner event.  

One of them (Simone) invited me to go sailplaning , which turned out to be an incredible experience (see video)!  I had given up the idea of flying aircraft and discovered that sailplaning offered me a new challenge, that I just might take up.  

After the flight, I drove to the nearby mountain park of Campo dei Fiori to enjoy polenta and asparagus soup outdoors at a wonderful eatery called Osteria Irma. Molto buono!

Afterwards, guitar in hand I hiked up to the top of a crest overlooking Lago Maggiore, playing and singing while I watched climbers scale cliffs. 

Rock Climbers

That evening I enjoyed a lovely singer at a local Venegono trattoria. Upon returning to my B&B, I encountered my hosts out in their garden with a group of their friends. They invited me to join them.  And soon we were all playing and singing until well past midnight (video).  A jam-packed day of wonderful, unexpected experiences.  The next day, I enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Locanda del Chierichetto. 

All in all, a great weekend, and a reminder of the importance of heeding DeMello and Tolle. Going with the flow, I decided to leave Italy earlier than planned to experience more of Prague before the symposium began.  I was so glad I did!

 Upon arriving, I went on a food tour filled with new foods (heavy & rich) and history lessons.  The following day, another walking tour to learn about Prague. I learned about Prague’s occupation first by the Nazi’s and then later by the Soviet Union.  Prague is where the WWII Operation Anthropoid happened (Watched the movie if you don’t know about it).

Vltava River

Prague is picturesque, clean, with a fantastic bus system to get around and beautiful parks to walk through safely, even at night.  It was not bombed in WWII, so it has many old buildings.  Feels gay, beautiful, and fun.  But I also had a throwback experience.  Upon my arrival at the iconic Grand International Hotel, I ran into two colleagues, an Aussie fighter pilot and former Russian test pilot Alexi, whom I knew from the London workshop. I learned they were preparing to brief NATO on pilot training at the Hague the next day.  The next day, a German friend told me this organization was consumed by preparing for possible conflict with Russia. It made me wonder. Was this what it was like in the 1930’s as the Nazi threat from the east grew and the winds of war brewed from a megalomaniac named Hitler? Time will tell.

Once the symposium began, my days (and nights) were very long but so enlightening. And something truly exciting unfolded at the European SFTE Symposium. The symposium’s theme, centered on interactions between humans and Artificial Intelligence, introduced attendees to bold initiatives and sparked dynamic conversations about how Artificial Intelligence and autonomy are reshaping flight test engineering. From autonomous drones to onboard AI systems, the symposium offered a glimpse of a major paradigm shift—what we test and how we test.  Together, all the presenters validated my keynote message that as flight testing evolves and grows in complexity, flight test methods and FTE expertise must evolve and reach a higher standard to meet the challenges.  

Attendees

Keynote Speaker

This is the impetus for SFTE's new Recommended Practices program. This is something I will try to make part of my legacy as President.  The symposium concluded with a tour of the Aero Vodochody aircraft production plant.  This is where, during the Warsaw Pact days, MiG fighters as well as L-39 trainers were produced. The Czechs are very happy to be capitalists again.  Like MHI in Japan, it is a reminder that who is a friend and enemy can switch in a generation. 

After the symposium concluded, I returned to Italy for 3 days to finally rendezvous with the new friends I had met and my old friends who had been away.  My new friends invited me to join them at a local festivi, a charity event for the local Catholic church, an experience so different than being a tourist.  And the pièce de rèsistance was a wonderful (albeit all too short) dinner rendezvous with Miriam and the next day with my Arona friends Francesca, Odi, and Matteo.  All were lessons in the flow of life as each of their lives had changed in unpredictable ways, both large and small. It felt comfortable and cathartic to reconnect.  

Then it was off non-stop to Southern California for the final leg of this trip to visit with Antelope Valley friends and flight testers, X-59, National Test Pilot School, Scaled Composites, and the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB reinforced the breadth and scope of the tech revolution.  I received my fam for serving as an NTPS trustee, felt the sorrow of a good friend who had just learned he could no longer be a test pilot due to a medical ruling just before a historic flight he had been working on for 8 years.  I met an amazing former Virgin Galactic astronaut (Kelly) and found we have so much in common from our life journey.  No matter how much one achieves, one must learn to keep the ego at bay or it can consume one with doubt.  I received a tour of Scaled Composite’s iconic aircraft, which are steeped in history. I learned from an old friend and colleague who is the TPS Deputy Director and SFTE Fellow, and the outgoing Commandant, that the TPS is undergoing a sweeping revision to weave AI and machine learning into the core of their academic training, flights, and data analysis. This is being accomplished with the help of GPTs.  I met testers from all over who came to meet the Prez, including Jordan, the ChatGPT whiz kid. This week, I was a bit of a celebrity.  But tomorrow, a nobody. More lessons in embracing the flow.   

Throughout this trip, I pondered the questions asked by posed by a guru.  Who am I? What is my deepest desire?  What am I grateful for?  Somewhere along the way, I discovered that I was answering the first question incorrectly, i.e., as “what am I?”  (e.g., the SFTE president, engineer, aviator, father) rather than the traits that describe my inner being.  (e.g., curious, compassionate, adventurous, introspective, optimistic, enthusiastic, organized, determined, self-centered, talkative, organized, hardworking, humanist).   Ultimately, I am a sojourner, deliberating, striving to explore these answers, living them authentically, and in some cases choosing to go against the grain.  Who are you?