Author: Dave English

Psychological skills of elite military pilots

By Dave English

Fifteen highly-rated pilots were interviewed at a Royal Canadian Air Force base by university psychology researchers as part of a larger longer project on how master performers differ from those of us that are merely ‘good’. Some of the results were published in 2014 — Examining the Psychological Skills Used by Elite Canadian Military Pilots — and it makes for interesting reading. “Your focus narrows and you’re not thinking about other stuff. I can have outside stresses at home and it won’t affect me … as soon as I get into the plane I don’t think about it anymore until I’m on the ground.” Participant … Continue reading Psychological skills of elite military pilots

10 don’ts from 1939

By Dave English

Published in 1939, Robert Winston’s book Dive Bomber takes us back to the exciting world of 1930’s US Navy aviation. It starts great — “Eighteen dollars an hour. That’s what they wanted for dual instruction at the flying school on Long Island. I had expected flying lessons to be expensive, but I didn’t think they were going to tear such a hole in my pay-check.” — and keeps going. He attributes this list of ten don’ts to any good flight instructor: Don’t try to take off or land down-wind. Don’t fool with the weather. Don’t accept a ’plane for flight … Continue reading 10 don’ts from 1939

The Disciples of Flight movie review

By Dave English

At the end of 2019 I downloaded a new aviation documentary— and it’s gorgeous. Beautifully shot crisp HD images of general aviation flying paired with insightful interviews from a bunch of pilots, including Patty Wagstaff, Rod Machado and NASA’s Dr. Dismukes. You can download it from Disciples of Flight directly for $15, or use Amazon Prime Video. Well worth the price for the visuals alone. The movie’s 93-minutes are all about personal dedication to aviation, about really loving and living flying. There’s no narrator, just lots of hangar interviews cut with super cool flying video. Both feel personal, close, real. … Continue reading The Disciples of Flight movie review

Nerves of Steel book review

By Dave English

Remember the Southwest 737 that had an engine explode in cruise and a passenger die? The incident was much worse than we might have first guessed, much worse than a simple engine failure at altitude in the simulator. And turns out the captain has a wild backstory more interesting than most airline pilots. This new autobiography has all the details, and it’s a surprisingly great aviation read. When Tammie Jo Shults was growing up, girls didn’t become pilots. The inside story of what it was really like to be a woman in US military flight training during the ’80s is … Continue reading Nerves of Steel book review