Lock-Out and Lock-On
Man and Machine and the Human Experience
When we climb into an aircraft to go flying, we must be focused on the aircraft, and be completely ready to command the flight. As a human we all carry baggage in our personal lives that can distract us from our mission of “Flying the Airplane”. This baggage are the personal problems that we all experience from time to time. Some years ago I read a paper written by a psychologist which discussed the problems we all have that can and will affect our personal performances.
Within this paper was a list of things in our personal lives that can disturb us the most. As I thought about this, I realized that I had to find a way to leave my personal baggage behind. Here are a few examples of things that might upset us the most:
Divorce
Buying and/or selling a house
Parents aging, becoming sick and dying
Our beloved pets leaving us
Our children’s growing pains
Financial woes such as
Pay cuts
The house needing a new roof or heating unit
College tuition
New cars
And there are many other examples.
We all have these problems. I’ve flown with pilots who can’t stop talking about their divorces and they get more upset as the trip goes on; but we need to keep these problems “Out of the Cockpit”.
I’ve had just as many problems as others who I’ve flown with, so I had to find a way to Lock-Out my personal troubles and Lock-On to the flying of the aircraft. Here is the procedure I used to clear my head and focus on my job.
Approaching the airport I would start to Not Think about how bad things were for me and to think about letting it go.
As I picked up the releases I would let more of the old baggage slip further away.
Then as I took my first step into the aircraft, that was it, I let it all GO!
I was now fully ready to fly my trip and going to work turned out to be a very relaxing experience!
I played golf with a couple of guys for a while and it was amazing to watch as they would curse, throw their clubs and argue over their scores. I even saw a friend take his whole bag of clubs and throw them all over the course. Later, he told me “how relaxing it is to play golf”. Then I got it! He was taking out all his anger from the week or his personal problems, and releasing the tension. You should have seen his clubs…they were all bent up!
We, as pilots, can’t behave like that at the airport. A professional bearing is expected from us and part of that requires us to let all the troubling stuff go for now; but don’t worry it all comes back after the trip!
The machine doesn’t care how we feel. But when something goes wrong or when we’re just flying an approach to minimums, or taking off into a snow storm, this all requires our best effort and full attention. And yes, it is relaxing.
So if you are going pleasure flying, it’s a great time to find your own way to Lock-Out your stuff and Lock-On to the job. LOCK OUT – LOCK ON.
Fly Safe File a Flight Plan Check the Weather and Chill out!
Until next month,
Captain Will Rondeau