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Delicate mechanical systems are needed to fly the airplane and create a livable environment.
Good checklist discipline can help with anxiety.
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 geo- graphically. 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” feel- ing. 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 watch- ing 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 di- chotomy 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 malfunc- tions. We don’t want to display behavior so risqué as to scare the FBO folks with our flabby fuselage or lily-white landing gear.
Kevin Dingman has been flying for more than 40 years. He’s an ATP typed in the B737, DC9 and CE-650 with 25,000 hours in his logbook. A retired Air Force major, he flew the F-16 and later performed as an USAF Civil Air Patrol Liaison Officer. He flies volunteer missions for the Christian organi- zation Wings of Mercy, is retired from a major airline, flies the Cessna Citation for RAI Jets, and owns and operates a Beechcraft Duke.Contact Kevin at dinger10d@gmail.com.
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