Link to Video

It remains a puzzle

By Dave English

How to land? Last night, in the dark of 16L, everything looked perfect. I gently bought the A320 into a nice flare, and was rewarded with an OK, but harder than I wanted, landing. It was safe. Many would say it was good. But I was disgruntled. I can do better. Often the final touch-down remains a puzzle to me. Today I watched some early 1970’s US TV. Strongly influenced by Bruce Lee, the show Kung Fu featured a fictional monk trained at the Shaolin Temple in China who wandered around the American Wild West kicking bad guy butt. This … Continue reading It remains a puzzle

Pilot perception

By Dave English

Some pilots will make an emergency out of a bad magneto check. Others, upon losing a wing, will ask for a lower altitude. In thrust we trust! And opposite aileron. Lots of opposite aileron. For more details on this and other damaged but flyable F-14s see this article on aviationist.com. And for the equally amazing F-15 see this very cool youtube video

How the Swiss Air Force learns

By Dave English

A great Swiss Air Force video shows us all how an enlightened high risk organization should use mistakes to get better, by moving away from a blame game and towards a learning culture. If people get blamed for their mistakes, the only thing one achieves is that people will keep their knowledge about mistakes, safety gaps or dangerous situations for themselves. Ask “why?” like a mantra to get deeper and deeper to the cause, to put yourself into the actor’s shoes and to understand, why the event had been happen. Mistakes or incidents can be seen as free lessons. If we … Continue reading How the Swiss Air Force learns

Inner Game article

By Dave English

“Players also pretend that it’s all about winning, but if that were true, why don’t you just play someone you know you can beat every time? What we really want is a challenge, and what tennis teaches us is how to overcome doubts and fears.” Tim Gallway Here’s a fantastic article on the original Inner Game of Tennis. Has cool videos from the 70’s, as well as a modern interview with Tim Gallway. And guess what, landing a plane is an Inner Game!