If you think adventure is dangerous . . .
“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal.” Paulo Coelho If you fly a lot it can become routine. And so a whole new danger-zone has to be faced. Preflights, cruise checks, yawn.
Author: Dave English
Fingerspitzengefühl
Fingerspitzengefühl is a German word. (As if you hadn’t already guessed!) It literally means “finger tips feeling”. As such it applies directly to holding the stick or yoke. The student pilot ‘death grip’ is really not helpful. You can’t make smooth gentle control inputs if you’re holding on too tight. And you can’t feel the aircraft talking to you. One of the most influential pilots I’ve known had a cool callsign when he was flying the F-4 and F-15: ‘Stroker’. People used to wonder what dirty fighter pilot innuendo it involved. But it actually referred to how he gently stroked … Continue reading Fingerspitzengefühl
Morning Checklist
My boys are 6 and 4. School mornings can be … challenging. So this weekend I nailed a checklist in each of their rooms: It worked great! They were actually excited to check off items as they were completed. Of course, how long will this diligence last? How long before the checklist is ignored? It takes us all a while to learn that having a checklist is not the same as getting things done right. I’m going to try and be consciously, mindfully, fully present for each of my flying checklists this week. BONUS – There’s a whole book on checklists, … Continue reading Morning Checklist
Are you in control?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a professor of psychology, quoted here from his book Flow. SaveSave
We should not feel . . .
“We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.” Alain de Botton The Consolations of Philosophy (2000).