A mask tells us more than a face.
Oscar Wilde
“Tis the season in which we are expected to scare and be scared. Second only to Christmas in dollars spent, the festival of All Hallows Eve, the eve of All Saints’ Day, is the most enthusiastically celebrated of Catholic holidays commemorating Christian saints and martyrs. Even so, October 31 now blends numerous different traditions and religious holidays into one amalgam of costumes, pumpkin-carving, treat-giving, trick-playing and assaults on our pancreas. Participants don costumes ranging from the angelic to the demonic. Pranks and devilish deeds are not only anticipated but encouraged, and behavior normally considered unhealthy or moderately risqué is toleraed. Despite this dichotomy, with its associated decadence, ghoulishness, fears and dread, we await the holiday with both anticipation and trepidation – like watching a ghoul sneaking up behind the horror-movie hero. Since Halloween approaches, let’s confess among ourselves in the private brotherhood of these pages that we sometimes have trepidation about flying.
di·chot·o·my
noun. Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions, especially when they are sharply distinguished or opposed.
Many of us love to fly. It’s a lifelong passion infused with structure, rules, regulations and mental and physical challenges – cumulating in a wonderful sense of joy, accomplishment and freedom. And this is the first part of our dichotomy. Flying can also be peppered with monsters, ghouls and demons. The list of fiendish threats is extensive: the weather, the rocks, our health, our proficiency, our money, our machine, the airspace system, and even the night. And our judicator is the boogeyman himself. And don’t forget the “bride-of-the-boogeyman” – the FAA. This is but a short list of the real and imagined menaces we overcome to fly – which would be the second contradictory part of our dichotomy.
Both Definitions of Anxious
Despite the times we scared ourselves, made bad decisions, ran a bit too low on fuel, stretched the weight and balance envelope, lost an engine again (the Duke swallowed an intake valve in June) or convinced ourselves that we had sufficiently learned a new rule, procedure or equipment (but had not), we keep flying. Such is the dichotomy of piloting airplanes. We often experience both definitions of anxious. We are anxious (wanting very much) to go flying, but we are also anxious (worry, unease, nervousness) because we don’t want to forget something important or mess up.
The second anxious happens more often when we lack recent flight experience, lack practice with new avionics, it’s nighttime, we have challenging weather, complex or busy arrival/approach procedures, or a short, slippery, or narrow runway. The first “wanting very much” definition is the one that may cause us to fly when we shouldn’t (mechanical, weather or any IMSAFE component). The second version of anxious is the one we must manage through training, experience and professional piloty-perseverance.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
something wicked this way comes.
Manifestation: an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, especially a theory or abstract idea. Apprehension: anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen. Scary, frightening and unnerving thoughts displayed mentally and/or physically.
Manifestation of apprehension is a state of psychological anxiety, apprehension or physical impairment – often exhibited by students toward their training environment. MOA symptoms may include passive or active airsickness, insomnia, appetite loss, anxiety, or tension related to the flying or controlling environment. Performance deterioration or airsickness is more common and occurs over a long period. Military pilot training instructors document MOA events because they are a potentially disqualifying trait in pilot wannabes. We confront our challenging environment and MOA with training, discipline, recent experience, confidence and our love of flying.
Be afraid…be very afraid.
The Fly (1986)
Air conditioning, humidity control, autopilots, auto brakes, LNAV, VNAV, airborne texting or internet, coffee makers, drink chillers and butt warmers – all make our airplane feel just like home, a low-threat environment. These niceties permit our attention to be focused on the safe, efficient and enjoyable operation of the vehicle. But they also make it easy to forget how harsh the environment is a scant window thickness away, and we may take for granted the often complex and delicate mechanical systems needed to fly the airplane and create a livable environment.
I used to drive from Phoenix to the North rim of the Grand Canyon each year to go hunting. The final leg before ascending the Kaibab plateau is a section of desert with an environment similar to that of Death Valley. It’s dangerously toasty, sometimes in the 120 to 130 Fahrenheit range. When exiting my air-conditioned, Def Leppard-saturated truck to get fuel, the contrast was shocking. On another trip to retrieve new motors for the Duke, I journeyed through the Idaho and Montana winter where sections of the route were negative 20 Fahrenheit – another shock when exiting the vehicle.
Through the window at 41,000, the contrasts described above serve to remind us how harsh the environment is just an inch away. Outside of your jet, the air is -50 Celsius, the partial pressure of oxygen will not sustain human life, and it’s blowing at 500 mph. If you lose pressurization or heating, that environment will be the one in which you must survive. It will be a life-or-death situation, and it will be shocking – especially with no coffee or butt warmer.
You’ve never been lost until you’ve been lost at Mach 3.
SR-71 pilot Paul Crickmore
Mach (from Austrian physicist Ernst Mach) is a measure of speed relative to the speed of sound. Subsonic is a Mach below .75. Transonic is from .75 to 1.20, supersonic is 1.2 to 5.0 and hypersonic is above 5.0. Low altitude pilots that do not use Mach as a measure imagine that jet speeds are something that certainly must push you into your seat and cause visual distortions. Just as we know this to be untrue, that you don’t perceive the speed, those who have been supersonic or hypersonic will also tell you there are little perceptual differences at those velocities. So, what’s all the hoopla about going really fast? Physics, my dear Watson. There are dangers where the Mach demon lives.
Mach tuck, Mach buzz (aileron buzz) or flutter, Mach Crit (critical), boundary layer separation and coffin corner are among the high-speed demons. Mach Crit is the lowest Mach number at which the airflow over some point of the aircraft reaches the speed of sound but does not exceed it. Mach tuck is the result of the CG shifting aft due to transonic flight which results in a nose down moment. As the Mach number increases further, the resultant nose down attitude causes Mach tuck to increase. Excursions past Mmo may also cause flow separation of boundary layer air over control surfaces. This can create an effect known as aileron buzz and may result in loss of control effectiveness. Your jet likely has an overspeed warning system to warn of Mach Crit as well as an automatic system (if the autopilot is engaged) to prevent Mach tuck.
What Am I Forgetting?
I’m sure you have heard the adage that certain aircraft sounds can only be heard at night, and some only when you are alone. The intensity of apprehension is directly related to our level of knowledge, training and, most markedly, recent experience. Students are usually apprehensive about every flight. The competent private pilot is next in line and seems to be apprehensive mostly when venturing into new territory – figuratively and geographically. Experience, knowledge and training levels take a quantum leap as we move to the instrument and ATP pilots, especially those flying 70 to 90 hours each month across multiple time zones and into challenging weather. It’s difficult to raise the hairs on the necks of these folks, but it happens.
However, a fascinating thing occurs as the flight gets underway for all of these aviators. Once we strap into the seat, get going on the checklist, and start throwing switches, we begin to relax and feel an emotional satisfaction. Checklists, procedures and discipline will do that. They all help to rid us of that “what am I forgetting” and “I hope I don’t mess up” feeling. The apprehension is, almost unknowingly, replaced by a sense of confidence, purpose, pride and accomplishment.
Passion: Eyes-Open Flying
Like partially covering your eyes while watching a suspenseful movie, yet continuing to watch anyway, what makes flying so pleasurable that we tolerate that span of nervousness before we fly? We all had that moment when we knew we were hooked on flying. Do you remember when you felt that way? It’s still there in all of us, buried perhaps by the realities of day-to-day life that make us too busy to smell the roses or airplane exhaust. That feeling is just under the surface, though, and once we start throwing switches, hear the sounds and smell the smells, we are reminded. Like the dichotomy of Halloween, so are the two definitions of anxiousness when we fly.
I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
L.M. Montgomery
As we manage both types of anxious this Halloween, let’s not play any tricks, pranks or devilish deeds in the airplane. The physical, virtual and regulatory environment in which we operate is challenging. Don’t partially cover your eyes and allow a ghoul to sneak up behind you. The aviation boogeyman is not new, and he’s not found only at 41,000 and transonic speeds. He has lived with us all along. We are old companions, us pilots and him. Don’t fret; you’ve met some of his demons before and conquered them. Your training and experience will help you to deal with the ones yet to come – and they will come.
And let’s agree (once again in the private brotherhood of these pages) that when we reach that “certain level” of anxious trepidation, we will modify the plan or cancel the flight. But in the meantime, wear the mask or costume of your choice, angelic to demonic. But please make sure that it covers most of your airframe – no wardrobe malfunctions. We don’t want to display behavior so risqué as to scare the FBO folks with our flabby fuselage or lily-white landing gear.
