Dying in the Scoot Utopia

Before heading to the plane, Stanger clarified that flying is actually very safe.

"The most dangerous part about flying is the drive to the airport," Stanger said. "It's a wing. It's very safe. It's the wing that flies, it's not the engine."

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“He was probably my best student,” Stanger said in a telephone interview. “He learned very, very quickly, and a lot of it is desire. He had huge desire.

“Really, anyone can learn how to fly. If you can drive a bus, you can fly an airplane. But to learn quickly takes money and time. Of course, Cory had plenty of money, and it was the off-season, so he had the time.”

Lidle, who is making $3.3 million this season, met with Stanger twice a week, for three or four hours at a time, all winter. He became queasy once, Stanger said, somewhere over New Mexico while returning from Texas. Otherwise, Lidle was a natural.

Part of Stanger’s job is to surprise students by simulating emergencies. He will pull the throttle to the idle position, essentially letting the plane coast as if the engine were failing.

Other times, he said, he would instruct a student to wear blinders so only the instrument panel was visible, simulating bad weather. Then Stanger would tilt the plane nose-high or nose-low, making the student recover by trusting the instruments.

“Most people get kind of ruffled,” Stanger said. “He was like, ‘O.K., no big deal.’ A lot of it is his mental state.

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If Lidle re-signs with the Yankees, he would fly at his own risk; in the Yankees’ standard contract, a player who injures himself in an off-field activity like flying would jeopardize the guaranteed money in his deal.

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