The No-Drama Airline Cockpit, a great piece by Chris Manno on his JetHead blog. It’s high praise of low stress: That’s the way I like it in flight: quiet, disciplined, low bullshit and high performance. Leave the drama to others outside the cockpit, on the ground, in Hollywood or romance novels. The way Sam put it to me years ago, “best relax in the cockpit, or you’ll die all tense.”
This quote is from an interview in the April 2016 issue of AOPA Pilot magazine. It’s good to remember (almost none of us) are flying missions vital for national security. We can wait out any storm. Caitlyn, a pilot and former Olympic athlete now more famous for popular TV exploits, also says: “Learning to fly the airplane was easy. It was everything else one has to learn that was challenging.”
Change is hard. But the alternative is worse.
Redundancy is the best policy. Lt. Alex Reardon US Naval Academy instructor. And by redundancy I don’t think he means two GPS units! The US Navy, who has long relied on GPS and electronic mapping for all navigation needs, is now going to start spending valuable teaching time on something really old school—sextants and celestial navigation. I’m not suggesting we all start leaning how to shoot the stars (something that remained an airline skill up to the first B747s), but the idea that we can continue to fly should we have total loss of GPS and electronic nav is strong. We … Continue reading Celestial navigation is back!
“Self-help gurus are always advising us to think positively and envisage success, but it’s about as helpful as thinking about cupcakes. Just thinking about them isn’t going to help. It’s more important to think what could go wrong with a mission. Visualize failings, not success. That’s what’s essential to survival as an astronaut. I was an astronaut for 21 years, but I only spent six months in space. The rest of the time, I was looking into every detail that might have gone wrong during a mission. Once you’ve understood all the potential risks and you’re forewarned against them, fear no longer … Continue reading Astronaut Chris Hadfield on negative thinking
