01-13
Piloting Aspects inside the novel “Captain,” Part Three
Here is the promised ending chapter to our ongoing discussion of the piloting aspects lurking inside my latest aviation-themed novel “Captain,” which is available from the usual book sources in all e-book formats and also a print edition.
Again, I wish to remind Piper Flyer readers that there is no requirement to have read the novel to follow what is being discussed here and, for those who might get “Captain” sometime in the future, I’ll be disguising the material enough so that this article won’t spoil the novel for you.
To see parts one and two in this series, go back to the September and November 2012 issues of Piper Flyer. In them, we touched on using the radio and keeping airspeed where it needs to be (Part One), then we went on to rules, common sense, risks and wishful thinking (Part Two).
For our finale, let’s wrap it up with fear, panic, pilot drills and some useful cockpit techniques:
He was realistic enough to understand that you never knew for absolutely certain what a person would do in a critical situation until it actually happened. There were no guarantees in life—as he had painfully learned for himself.
“The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It’s the one you can’t train for that kills you.”
—Ernest K. Gann
There is an overwhelmingly simplistic attitude among too many people—especially those who are in charge of writing endless rules and procedures—that if we quantify everything possible and then train incessantly to those written standards, we will have covered all the bases.
Nothing is further from the truth for two reasons: first, it is simply not possible to foresee every permutation of each potential dilemma that one can experience in an airplane (or experience in most any other phase of life, for that matter); and, two, humans are far less predictable (while also being far more adaptable) than machines because a person’s inherent emotional system will bring a whole extra level of inputs to a particular situation.
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
—Abraham Maslow, psychologist
A secondary problem with rote training to particular standards is that it doesn’t teach the student to think, it teaches the student to follow. That’s all well and good when the particular problem that has developed with your airplane today is precisely along the lines that the scenario writers had invented for their particular procedure, but what when it doesn’t really fit?
What if the official procedure only partially applies—or if it seems to make the deteriorating situation even worse? What does the rote-trained pilot do when none of the written books or codified procedures apply to the particular nightmare that he finds himself a sudden and reluctant participant in?
X’s mind was locked on one circular pattern of thoughts, that there was no procedure for this impossible failure, no procedure whatsoever…they were going to die…there was no procedure…Those final elements of cognitive thought and the training and the flight experience that X’s conscious mind was trying to call on was quickly pushed aside by the overwhelming, extreme fear that now burst out of his subconscious mind and had grabbed hold of him as if it were a savage animal taking its next meal. X had—within a handful of seconds—been devoured by an unbridled panic and was now firmly entrenched in a state of pure terror.
The more a pilot has been conditioned to find the complete answer to every question in some memorized drill, the more possible that the particular pilot won’t be able to think out of the box—or will do something that will prove to be even worse for themselves and the airplane.
Humans have a cogent, reasoning system inside their heads, plus an automatic system. The emotion of fear resides in the automatic portion, and it is outside the control of your conscious thoughts. A reaction of extreme fear… will shut down the prefrontal cortex where the conscious mind resides and total control will then shift to the automatic areas. Another part of the mind that will shut down with extreme fear is memory, which is why victims of intense trauma often cannot remember what happened to them even though they were completely conscious the entire time.
But what is the particular trigger that can take a functioning pilot into a complete state of panic and/or into a total rational meltdown? It will vary widely by individuals, but one of the most predictable ways to induce a panic and/or dysfunctional state is to suddenly take a person out of their comfort zone and leave them with absolutely no place to turn.
Y’s entire world revolved around procedures and rigidly learned techniques. When the airliner did things that were outside the domain of those areas—far outside, as it turns out—he was suddenly, completely and hopelessly lost. The only thing left to him at that moment was the automatic response, a response which shut down everything rational in him.
Y was grasping at straws, at snippets of knowledge and memory that were rushing disjointedly through his mind. Y was literally drowning in a sea of overwhelming emotion and was trying to grab hold of a potential life preserver…
How can pilots avoid letting panic overtake them? By always flying the airplane with their brain. Printed manuals and procedures are certainly good tools to have in the bag, but they are no more than just another set of tools for the skilled aviator. There are several other things a pilot can do to help keep their thought process on track when airborne events begin to go to hell.
X was still looking for something useful to do, some way to add something positive to those final minutes of their flight. Thinking about useful flying procedures was far preferable…
“‘We need you totally focused on what’s to come, and no distractions about what might have happened in the past…’.”
“‘I don’t need you being pulled in different directions at this point. Not just for me, either. There are people here who don’t need you to have any distractions.’”
The pilot who can stay calm and collected, keep their wits about them and their brains fully functional during a crisis, the ones who know when to use which tools from the toolbox and when to shut that particular toolbox and go to something else are the ones who stand the best chance—flight in and flight out—of keeping the blue side up. They are the pilots who have lived up to their full potential as airmen.
“For what then counts and matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a tragedy into a personal triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement.”
—Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist
Finally, to wrap up our discussion, here are some odds and ends to go flying with—compliments of the characters in “Captain.” To see more about Trans-Continental Flight 3 and its particular problems—including the new “Captain” video trailer—go to ThomasBlockNovels.com.
“When it comes to computers, nothing is impossible.’”
It takes so little movement on the pilot’s part to make such a big airplane do so much.
When fuel is an issue, stay high.
“The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods.”
—Plato
“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward.”
—Leonardo da Vinci
Editor-at-large Thomas Block has flown nearly 30,000 hours since his first hour of dual in 1959. In addition to his 36-year career as a U.S. Airways pilot, he has been an aviation magazine writer since 1969, and a best-selling novelist. Over the past 30 years he has owned more than a dozen personal airplanes of varying types. Send questions or comments to editor@www.piperflyer.com.
