During flight, the workload can grow rapidly. This is especially true in an emergency situation. The list of checks to be done grows exponentially as time goes by. This pile up can reach the point of overwhelming the pilot.
Different pilots will respond differently to this condition. One of the most dangerous responses is total shutdown. This is where the pilot's mental capacity shrinks to the point where they can barely maintain level flight, let alone navigation and emergency situation handling. All the while the list of things to be done grows longer. Other pilots will delay some tasks in favor of completing others. Now this should be just fine, f the pilot can prioritize the tasks correctly. however if the priorities are not ordered correctly, then issues can arise. If communication is prioritized but not maintaining level flight, an unusual attitude is likely to occur.
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A pilot is never truly off the clock, whether or not they fly for hire or not. In reality, a pilot's license is a job in and of itself. The duties are maintenance of skills and knowledge and constant learning.
Every other pilot I've had the pleasure of shaking hands with is proud to share their preferred method of reviewing material. An instructor of mine kept flashcards on his person at all times, pulling them out in moments of downtime and waiting. Riding passenger seat or sitting in the waiting room, constantly reviewing. A learning pilot is a good pilot. A phrase I'd be honored to claim as coined. The best pilots are constantly learning the latest information, techniques, and theories in order to become better pilots. I refer again to Captain Sullenberger. In his book he brought up how he would study accident reports, and the experimentation of new techniques. This routine is what brought him to learn water landing techniques and put the airbus safely into the river. Constant learning and improvement is part of the deal of becoming a good pilot. Its a necessity, just as much as working hard is to getting stronger. Everyone gets discouraged, its part of being human. Many student pilots get discouraged when they do a maneuver incorrectly. Often times this occurs during a check ride. This often causes the student to be distracted and make errors in subsequent maneuvers.
one of the best ways to overcome this is similar to how one gets over stress on the ground before flight; set it aside, deal with it later. Focus on getting the following maneuvers correctly. Some examiners have given students slack for being able to let stress roll off of them. This does not just apply to just flight however. Screwing up a simulator lesson can rattle confidence and throw a student off their game. A lack of confidence can create the self fulfilling prophecy of failure. The student pilot may unknowingly fail intentionally in order to fulfill their own expectation. As most pilots are, you are likely addicted to flight. If so, you are willing to take every chance you can get to fly. Sometimes the desire to fly gets in the way of the safety first thought process.
One of the most common names for this is get-there-itis. The idea of "I need to fly to make it to this event" or some other thought process that make one think they HAVE to fly. This has been known to cause a pilot to exceed their personal minimums and their abilities. This can quickly kill any pilot. Inadvertent IMC is a leading killer of pilots, and get-there-itis is a common contributing factor. While poor weather is a major factor, but if the pilot is not at the top of their game it can have a similar or worse result. Sleep deprivation and stress can have a huge negative impact on pilot performance. A loss of judgement can allow get-there-itis to take over, and then also lead to inadvertent IMC. These problems compound on one another, one causing the next. The easiest fix for get-there-itis is to not consider the reason you are taking off at all. Consider the conditions of each flight as though you are flying purely for leisure. Every pilot has their flight bag, and every pilot loads theirs differently. Some back extra batteries for flashlights, calculators, and other devices. Some keep every IFR and VFR chart they can get to fit in the bag. No two bags are the same, and every pilot has their reasons for how they load it.
Personally I prefer to keep the bag light. For every flight, in addition to the normal items, I carry an extra paper map and compass. The point of that is so that in the situation of an off field landing, so that I can locate the nearest town or other landmark. Outside the flight bag, whenever possible I fly in boots to protect my feet, and have long sleeves available to keep warm in the case of an overnight stay in an emergency landed plane. In the future I plan (and hope policy allows it) to carry fire starters and a survival knife. This is purely for the situation of an unplanned landing in an unplanned location. I am of the personal philosophy of "better to have and not need than need and not have." So it seems that there has been an error with my posting system, and only had a partial post last time. In summary, the main point of the previous post was to say it is a terrible idea to remove the human element from the cockpit because a robot has no instincts and can only react to programmed situations.
In recent years, there has been much talk among engineers about replacing humans behind the wheel, and some have experimented with robot pilots. While business model makers dance behind their desks at the idea of
As most pilots know, among the dangerous attitudes there is the idea of invulnerability. The belief that the pilot is invincible, untouchable, and capable of handling any situation. It is designated by the FAA as "It won't happen to me." This could not be for false. Even before my private pilot training was complete had experienced multiple equipment failures and bad weather. I had the good fortune of them either have a redundancy, or being able to return to the airfield safely. These occurred in some of best kept and equipped steam gauge C172s for a part 61 school.
It doesn't matter how well kept an aircraft is, or even how many hours a pilot has. Captain Sullenberger had nearly twenty thousand hours at the time of flight 1549. My instructor always taught the aircraft doesn't know who is flying, and it doesn't care. It isn't going to go easy on a less experienced pilot, if something is going to go wrong, it'll go wrong regardless of who is at the stick. That same instructor also taught us Murphy's law: "if it can go wrong, it will." That was part of the reason I started to carry an extra compass and paper VFR flight charts in my flight bag at all times, so that if I went down, I could find my way back again. The other reason was because of a messed up compass due to the addition of an AoA indicator. It was always 30 degrees off or more. So I carried the compass for if I ever became disoriented and lost known headings. It was there as a contingency, and well as a source of confidence. I have always tried to live by the phrase "better to have and not need, than need and not have." The issue a great number of pilots have, especially when they are just starting out is funding. Many early pilots remain on the ground for extended periods simply because of the cost of flight. This causes fresh pilots to quickly lose the skill they had just learned.
Operation of an aircraft is certainly a perishable skill, which can deteriorate even after as little as a couple of weeks on the ground. So finding a way to maintain those skills is crucial. One highly inexpensive technique is chair-flying. This is the make believe equivalent of flying, where the pilot uses their mind's eye to place themselves in the cockpit and then fly through an imaginary flight. For very new pilots, a poster of the cockpit helps significantly. I myself have a C172 glass cockpit poster up on my wall to help me transition from steam gauges. For those who spend a fair amount of time in controlled airspace, partner up with a friend and practice radio calls, even if they aren't a pilot. A good rule of thumb is if you can teach it, you know it, meaning that if you are able to explain flight maneuvers and communications you can reasonably assume you know them. These days many pilots come equipped with such devices as the CX series flight computers and the E6B phone app, including myself. There is a great fundamental flaw in this: batteries die. We've all been there; we reach for the remote to mute the really loud commercial only to find the batteries dead. This is why it is always vital to A: carry spares, and B: have a manual computer. such as the E6B or CR-6.
During my training out of KGRR I had never even been introduced to the idea of a CX. It wasn't until I arrived for my collegiate training that caught wind of the CX-2, upon which I quickly ordered the CX-3. My immediate hesitation to using the CX-3 in the air was my unfamiliarity of its capabilities, but more importantly its limitations. I am still unsure as to what it is and is not able to do. Hence the personal policy of carrying my old reliable E6B, which I had been using for two years before ever flying an aircraft, and am highly comfortable with. For those out there who say "well I know my CX better than my CR" I choose to respond with a simple "fix that." Being unfamiliar with the manual systems is like knowing auto-pilot, but not stick and rudder, its just a plain old bad idea. In an emergency, skip the calculator, go strait to the hard steel wiz-wheel (or plastic, if that is the case). |
Photo used under Creative Commons from C. P. Ewing