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throw it into the air and blast it with a couple rounds from my 12 gauge. I obviously needed assistance – and counseling.
I was told that using a kerosene heater to preheat the hard drive to prevent cold start-ups, as I do for the Duke, would produce too much carbon monoxide. And the TSA is hesitant to let me through security with said heater anyway. After three hours of consultation with a computer guy during the setup procedure of my new traveling companion, we agreed on several TSA, EPA and APA (American Psychiatric Association) approved backup systems so as to prevent the security, environmental and no-place-like-home syndromes from manifesting themselves again. The strategy would be this: Allow some warm-up time after travel and before boot-up, use of a flash drive, emailing important documents to myself and securing rental space in “The Cloud” – a virtual safety deposit box for data, on an internet server. No kerosene, no wizard, no shotgun and no psychiatrist.
Head in the Clouds
Coincidentally, the term Cloud is used to describe the internet “place” where our data is stored. The elec- tronic revolution has created a gen- erational paradigm shift in where our attention is directed. To say that the expression “Head in the Clouds” is accurate would be, well, not only truthful but ironic. I’m sure you’ve seen people, most people in fact, with their heads hung low, staring at an electronic device as they walk or drive. You may have needed a zigzag to avoid colliding with one of them. My Part 121 carrier and the others are once again post-COVID begin- ning to hire new, mostly young crew members. I point out the young part because of the generational differ- ences – a difference in work ethic, colloquial language, manners, atten- tion span and their incessant and apparently fluent use of electronics. But it’s not just the younger genera- tion distracted by electronics. I guess because we old geezers are a “bit” slower in learning and using new
tech, often the electronics distract us older folks even more than the tech-savvy youth.
These electronic distractions come from the usual suspects: social media, music, e-readers, email, Googling and texting. Often their use is at an inappropriate time – like when I’m trying to conduct a pre-departure crew briefing (a mandatory event in the Part 121 world). And occasion- ally it’s during the gate arrival phase when my crew is supposed to be dis- arming the inflatable slide function of the passenger exits. We’ve “blown a slide” or two because they weren’t disarmed before the gate agent or catering dudes and dudettes opened the door from the outside. I’m certain it’s happening at all the airlines, and it’s not just the newbies making mis- takes. It’s all crew members that are allowing themselves to be rushed or distracted, often by electronics.
Insidious and Overwhelming
Unfortunately, we pilots can stick our heads in this new societal and metaphoric cloud just as much as any- one. The data available in the cockpit is more and more often coming from other than ground-based VHF and UHF signals – and the majority of available information is not aviation- related. Today’s electronic content comes from geosynchronous orbiting satellites for weather and GPS, and the internet, radio and cell/Sat phones for everything else. While these sources of information and entertainment are transformational in their usefulness, they can be habit forming, insidious and an overwhelming distraction. It’s no epiphany that the many forms of electronic information distract us from the moving parts of reality. And in our above-the-ground reality, the moving parts often move unforgiv- ingly quickly.
Short N Numbers
We made too many
wrong mistakes. – Yogi Berra
June 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 21