Page 26 - Jan23T

From the Flight Deck
by Kevin R. Dingman
React: Pilot Reflexes
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous and conflicting information.
“The time elapsing between the beginning of a stimulus and the beginning of an organism’s reaction to it.” That’s the definition of reaction
time – that is, if you don’t mind being called an organism. Even if you do mind, it’s still the definition. Our high school driver’s education teacher used “age, experience and wisdom” as his retort to the class contention that our youth and quick reaction time made us better drivers than older, slower-thinking drivers. We had yet to learn that the quickest reaction time is the one in which you avoid the need to react quickly in the first place. Or one in which you avoid having to react a second time because the first reaction was wrong.
– Winston Churchill
than a test of the ability to react, they didn’t require any decision-making other than the recognition of a visual cue. There was no requirement for subject matter knowledge, analytical thinking or risk assessment. There were no time constraints like an approaching mountain, accumulating ice, low fuel, the end of a runway or the airplane rolling over due to a deployed thrust reverser. There were no screaming passengers, no smoke filling the cabin or the sound of accelerating air or that of a decelerating engine. You could not clip any trees, sink in the ocean, land short, or bend any metal if your decision was wrong or reaction inadequate. In other words, there was no pressure. No
In our flying world, when we discuss quick reactions, we are all trained to relax and to move switches and controls deliberately, with purpose and in the correct order. In the Citation 650, the one and only event in which a knee-jerk reaction is allowed is during an uncommanded thrust reverser deployment in flight. There are two switches near each fire switch labeled EMER and NORMAL with the word STOW next to EMER. In the sim, thrust reverser deployment in flight is often used to initiate unusual attitude recovery practice – from very unusual attitudes.
Screaming Passengers
Very few problems are solved with a knee-jerk reaction – except this one.
The top 12 percentile – that’s what I scored today using an internet reaction-time test. And I’m within a pitching wedge of age 70. Another test categorized my reaction time as equivalent to that of age 40 – not quite as fast as a high school driver’s ed student. However, they were very simple physical tests using the “click-now” function more similar to an arcade game than a useful reaction time measuring tool. Also, more of a hand-eye coordination assessment
24 • TWIN & TURBINE / January 2023