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noises. Psychological stress can be more difficult to identify. This category of stress includes anxiety, social and emotional factors and mental fatigue. Psychological stress can occur for many reasons such as divorce, family problems, financial troubles or just a change in schedule.
A = Alcohol
The rules surrounding the use of alcohol while flying are clear: FAR 91.17 prohibits the use of alcohol within the eight hours before f lying, while under the influence of alcohol, or with a blood alcohol content of 0.04 percent or greater. Remember, we can follow the “Eight hours from bottle-to- throttle” rule and still not be fit to fly. Hangovers are dangerous in the cockpit with effects similar to being drunk or ill: Nausea, vomiting, extreme fatigue, dehydration, difficulty focusing, dizziness, etc. The FAA recommends that pilots wait at least 24 hours after drinking before flying.
F = Fatigue
The effects of fatigue are cumulative,
meaning that small sleep deprivations
over time can add up. Pilots should also consider time changes, jet lag and day/ night scheduling options when managing fatigue. Both mental and physical fatigue should be assessed.
E = Eating
Should you eat just before going on a flight? How about that bowl of chili and a plate of nachos with jalapenos? You need to plan this aspect of your schedule. Eat close enough to the flight that your body is fueled but not so close that you are digesting a lot of food just before and during the flight. And think about which foods do not agree with your tummy. Especially the ones that your digestive system likes to “process” quickly, if you know what I mean.
A man’s got to know his limitations.
– Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood)
After a day of meetings, decision- making or fun and excitement, before you hop into your airplane to go home or to the next scheduled event, find somewhere that you can be alone. Where you don’t have anyone to convince you of how great a pilot
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you are and how important, routine, easy or short the next flight will be. Have a talk with yourself that goes something like this: In the first 10 minutes of this flight, I am going to lose an engine, the autopilot and part of the NAV system. Someone in the back of the plane will be asking what the loud noise was. Am I ready for it? Can I handle a hand-flown, single- engine approach in this weather with a degraded NAV system? When the answer is no, tell your boss, the pax or your spouse that you can’t fly when the weather is like this, at this time of day or when tired, burned out, headache, hungry, diarrhea, you lost a sock, broke a shoestring — whatever. Lie to them if you need to; tell them you can’t factor a quadratic polynomial. But don’t lie to yourself. Because something a little bit bad, or something atrocious, can happen. Maybe something you can handle. Maybe something no one could handle. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.”
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March 2017
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