Tomorrow’s first blank page
Happy 2017! See you in the sky . . .
mindset
Living the dream
From the first hour of flight training, realize that you are already ‘living the dream!’ Eric Auxier. Airline captain and writer.
Don’t let your emotions …
Never get emotionally worked up in the cockpit — you’ll only die mad. Best be like the WWII British poster, keep calm and carry on:
You’re not in a dangerous situation until
Scott Crossfield — fighter pilot, aeronautical engineer, first person to fly twice the speed of sound and X-15 chief engineering test pilot — quoted in the classic book X-15 Diary released this week. He is also quoted as saying: In all of this business there’s a requirement of intense concentration—if you can train yourself to be self-disciplined. If you close the car door on your finger, your impulse is to put it in your mouth and curse. But you train yourself too wait. It’s part of the profession—to avoid an emotion or a reflex reaction. Clearly a safety warrior at work.
Being a good stick is not enough
Being a “good stick” is not enough. Good pilots are thinking their way through the air as well as simply moving controls. What comes next in flight is absolutely as important as what is happening right now. Jack J. Pelton EAA CEO, Sport Aviation magazine, Nov 2016 “Being ahead of the plane” they call it. And if you can always answer the question, “what are the next two things,” then you are really mentally ahead—pilot not passenger.