Fellow blogger and friend Dan Pimentel emailed recently and asked for advice on his upcoming instrument checkride. I was flattered to be asked and sent some suggestions. One, that I tell all my clients when they’re under the hood, is to take a few deep breaths, relax and get into the “Zen of airplane.” It’s probably more correct to say to “become one with the airplane.” However, my clients understand me and usually lean back a little in their seat, become more focused on the instruments and their performance instantly improves. Dan said that made sense and asked if I could elaborate. When I realized I couldn’t, I decided to research the subject.
The best website I found is...
David English's www.pilotpsy.com, which says he’s an airline captain working on a graduate degree in Applied Psychology. One of my degrees is in Psychology, though back then the field concentrated far too much on “Abnormal Psychology” and not enough on some of the new fields like Positive Psychology and Happiness. For more information on the latter, I highly recommend works by Martin E. P. Seligman. I vividly remember a guest lecture Marty gave at Swarthmore College in the 1970’s, before he branched into this new field.
English does a masterful job of weaving a story about lessons he learned, long after he was already working for the airlines, from a flight instructor named Sam. I take the writer at his word that Sam was a real person, though apparently some readers have questioned this. He drew me in on his “Inner Art of Airmanship” page by saying “Most pilot books and magazine articles look down for flying lessons in fatal crashes, unconsciously copying the methods of cognitive research journals that cite studies of flawed reasoning about six times more often than they cite studies of successful reasoning…As an alternative approach, we will look upwards to see what the skilled connoisseurs of excellence can teach us. It turns out there are many more places to look for flying lessons than twisted wreckage sitting in a smoking hole in the ground.” As one who’s read hundreds if not thousands of accident reports, I agree, there must be better ways to learn how to become a master pilot.
After recounting recounting his many encounters with Sam, English presents lessons learned from the master in twelve articles with titles like “Flying Can Not Be Taught,” “Centered Within” and “Trust the Inner Game.” If it all sounds a little too far out and crazy, trust me it’s not. Each article is full of solid ideas that average pilots can use to raise the level of their game. Here are some of the nuggets I took away.
Exerience Matters
It's a common myth that the performance level attained by pilots (and athletes) is determined by some inner talent with which they’re born. Yet one study shows that it’s not talent or strength that determines performance, but rather having the proper mindset and focus. Another study showed that the number of hours of practice is the primary factor that differentiates performance levels. A separate study of F-15 fighter pilots showed that fully 92.5% of the variability in their situational awareness scores was explained directly by the total number of hours they had in F-15’s.
This correlates perfectly with most accident data I’ve seen, which shows that accidents are related to the number of hours a pilot has in type, not to a pilot’s total flying hours. So experience matters. Anyone contemplating an instrument checkride will want to get lots of practice in the airplane. Better yet, get even more experience by practicing in a simulator.
But there’s another major category of experience which counts that may get overlooked. I often tell my clients to practice “armchair flying” when they’re at home and have a few quiet moments. Why? I recall reading years ago of an experiment in which three groups of basketball players were tested on their ability to throw baskets at the beginning and the end of the study period. Group 1 was told to do no practice during the study period, Group 2 was told to actively practice shooting baskets and Group 3 was told to spend time imagining that they were shooting baskets. The results? Group 2 improved their performance the most, but Group 3 improved almost as much!
English cites similar studies, including one that showed that the most successful Olympic athletes did more mental practice in the final stages of their preparation than less successful competitors. He also says that “Sports psychology studies have shown that this mental practice is most effective when you picture yourself actually accomplishing the feat from your mind's eye, not watching yourself from the outside looking in.”
I tell my clients when they’re practicing at home in a chair, that they should not just envision themselves flying a perfect approach to a perfect landing. Instead, visualize deviations and the corrections that they make in response. For example, imagine you notice that you’ve blown to the left of the runway and then use a sideslip by lowering the right wing and pushing on the left rudder until you return to the centerline. One can just as easily fly an entire instrument flight by visualizing getting the ATIS, briefing the approach, flying the procedure turn, adding power to level off after each descent and so on.
Quieting the Mind English says “We all have that inner dialogue, the voice in our head that talks to only us.” He cites a sports performance coach who claims that “60% of our thoughts are chaotic and not really useful.” English talks about meditation as a technique for focusing and quieting the background chatter in our minds. I have no doubt it works, though I’ve haven’t tried it.
Fortunately, however, flying tends to focus the mind and leave behind many of the thoughts and cares of our daily live. For the average levels of stress that we face in our lives, I find that it relaxes one and reduces stress—that is once you know how to fly an airplane. For a checkride, I think it’s easy to get caught up in negative thinking which works against us. When people continue to worry that a particular maneuver may have caused them to fail the checkride, their performance degrades on subsequent maneuvers. As soon as you finish a maneuver, you need to forget about it and concentrate on the next maneuver.
Playing and Having Fun
I find find that people learn best when they’re having fun, which is good, because I enjoy teaching a lot more when I’m having fun. Most of my clients come back from a lesson with a smile on their face, probably because they’re satisfied with their accomplishments but also perhaps because lots of jokes and good natured ribbing were sprinkled throughout the flight. English talks at length about the importance of having fun while flying.
You can also have fun on a checkride, and if it’s at the examiner’s expense, so much the better! Naturally, you don’t want to carry this too far, particularly if you perceive that your DPE lacks a sense of humor. I shared the following story with Dan about my instrument checkride which was nearly 20 years ago and it ties in nicely with my previous comments about continuing to worry on a checkride about early poor performance.
While flying in IMC during my checkride, I made an error while identifying an NDB station (remember those?), which I eventually caught. I started to worry about whether I’d failed my checkride, but after awhile I decided to just forget about it, move on and try to do the best I could for the rest of the checkride.
We landed at the Watsonville Airport in Watsonville, CA and had to call for a clearance to depart, as there was a very low ceiling. The departure called for us to depart on runway 20 while tracking the backcourse of a localizer. This meant that we would have reverse sensing on the CDI and I was sure the examiner was thinking I might have some difficulty.
This is where the “bad boy side of me" (a phrase borrowed from Rod Machado, who used it when we were talking about a prank he had pulled) came out and I decided to have a little fun at the examiner’s expense. My plan was simple. I would fly the backcourse so perfectly that the needle would never move, causing the examiner to worry—while we were in solid IMC—that the VOR receiver wasn’t working. I saw two possible outcomes. One was that I had already failed the checkride due to my initial error while identifying the NDB, which took off all of the pressure. The other was that if I flew the backcourse perfectly, the examiner would be suitably impressed and I might still pass the checkride.
We took off and quickly entered the clouds. Knowing that there was nothing to lose, I totally relaxed, focused on the CDI needle and heading and became one with the airplane. Each time I felt that the needle was even considering moving to the right, I added the slightest amount of left rudder pressure (since we had reverse sensing), to keep the needle from moving. I can honestly say, the needle never moved. But the examiner’s head did! He continually alternated between looking outside to see if we were still in the clouds and staring at the CDI needle to try to determine if it was working or had broken. Finally, he got so frustrated that he told me to turn left. When I did, the needle start to move and his relief was evident. I did pass the checkride, but I never told anyone—including the examiner—about my little game until Dan asked me for tips on his checkride. My advice: have fun, but don’t carry it too far as it could backfire!
English's website contains much more information that pilots can use in their quest to become master pilots. For example, he says that “Zen emphases the seemingly simple practice of paying attention to what we are doing right now,” which was what I was doing while flying the backcourse. He also talks about what sports psychologists call “the zone.” That’s when you are completely focused, your mind is operating on a different plane and that a normal time frame seems slowed down.
English is also the author of a book on aviation quotations and his website reaches broadly into other high performance fields such as sports and the Olympics with extensive quotes from high achievers and coaches. I highly recommend that you print out the pages for his “Twelve Flights to Strengthen Inner Airmanship,” read them at your leisure and liberally mark them up with a highlighter. You’re sure to find at least one or two gems that will help you become a better and safer pilot.
Instrument check rides can no longer be conducted in IMC, which seems strange, but my DPE said there was no way he was going to touch the controls and I couldn't (yet) legally fly the plane if we weren't IMC. (I don't know how I could legally fly with him in the right seat and with a vision-limiting device on, but I didn't want to press the point.)
Posted by: Colin Summers | September 02, 2008 at 08:29 PM
Colin: you can fly as a private pilot with a view-limiting device, provided that you have any pilot in the right seat acting as a safety pilot.
As I recall, the safety pilot doesn't even need to have a current BFR or medical [Not true, see below!], though I wouldn't swear to that in front of a judge.
Posted by: p | December 10, 2008 at 06:22 AM
Actually, the requirements for a safety pilot are that they be rated in the category and class of aircraft AND that they have a current medical. The idea behind this is that the safety pilot should be fully qualified to take over and fly the airplane if necessary.
Colin, during a checkride, you are legally PIC (true even for a student pilot getting a Private) so you could legally fly in IMC during your instrument checkride. Many examiners are no longer keen on giving checkrides in IMC as they're looking to minimize their risk.
Posted by: Max Trescott | December 10, 2008 at 01:55 PM
Great article. You have enforced many of the things I have practiced in my 46-year flying career which included flying evertyhing from J-3s to an F-15, and the Goodyear blimp; VFR, IFR; flight and ground instruction, air taxi, corporate and air carrier flying; and police surveillance. I was also an FAA air traffic controller and manager for 25 years.
The most important points I try to teach is to a) know your self, and b) know your aircraft. That means hours of thinking and more hours of practice, as you have said. Because I practiced what I preach, I am happy to say that I am an example of one of the few "old and bold" pilots.
What is your home airport? I was the last full-time manager of San Carlos when it went to a contractor in 1994 when I retired.
Posted by: Bob Ensten | December 23, 2008 at 11:05 AM