Sunday, February 12, 2006

Pilot Decision Making

On my first flight I realized how much I didn't know (it doesn't matter how much Flight Simulator you fly, it isn't the Real Thing). Pilot Decision Making was the most surprising eye-opener.

As we started the takeoff roll, John started talking about "if we abort the takeoff now, we'll just land on the runway ahead of us".

Then that changed to "if we have to release now we'd ditch in the river". Can't we make it to the other side? "Nope, we're going to get wet".

Then "we'd land straight ahead on the grass at the sod farm". And finally "we'd turn around and land downwind". Finally, "we'd find a thermal and try to stay up here, otherwise we'll join the pattern and land".

This is Pilot Decision Making: the constant evaluation of where you are, what your situation is or could become, and what your options might be. It is also the "O" in CISTRSCO -- what are my Options?

I've had my driver's license for about 34 years. When I took driver's ed way back in my teens one of the lessons was "always leave yourself an out": Don't get boxed into a situation where, if something goes wrong, you have no options except to have a Really Bad Day.

Thanks to Lesson#1 (and lots of subsequent reading) I realized that I now drive in an empty-headed manner... I get in the car, point it where I want to go, disengage brain, and somehow we get to the destination. If something looks strange then I re-engage, analyze and (if necessary) react. Merging traffic from the right? Oh. Maybe I should move over a lane.

And sometimes I arrive at my destination convinced that the car drove itself, because I sure wasn't around for the trip.

Part of this is very good, and I will achieve flying in this manner: Rather than using a front-of-mind thinking analyzing method of driving/flying (which leads to overcontrol, and doesn't leave a lot of bandwidth for any other processing), driving/flying becomes second nature, and you "wear" the aircraft from here to there. Rather than thinking "OK, I'm turning left, I need to do this with the rudder pedals, and this with the stick, and do my visual checking for traffic starting here, and what's my airspeed, and from which direction is the wind blowing", you Just Do It.

But: When driving I need to be constantly engaging my mind regarding the situation, the issues, the options, and what the preferred action would be. I've become far too lazy when driving - the autopilot is on, and the brain is off. This is all proportional: on a long-distance drive on a limited-access highway with limited traffic, you relax and go with the flow. In stop&go traffic, or a congested city street, you stay very engaged.

On the ground you can get away with a lower level of attention: There is only one degree of freedom (left/right), and one translation (forward speed). In case of engine failure the worst that will immediately happen is that you're going to slow down and stop on the side of the road.

I thought I was going to learn to fly. I didn't expect lessons to carry-over into the rest of my life. Neat.

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