SAFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 27 March | April 2020 T his discussion was prompted by several high-profile fatalities that have occurred in the USA in recent times. When I shared the text of the Airwaves that went out before Christmas, they were shocked to learn of our fatality count from last year. I would urge all of you to have a listen to the podcast; you can find it here: [www.cloudbase- mayhem.com/episode-109-reducing-the-carnage- with-will-gadd-and-jeff-shapiro/] . I’d like to share with you some of the things that Gavin, Jeff and Will talk about, and this article should in no way be a substitute for listening to the podcast in full. Jeff has recently gone through training to obtain his GA licence, and was exposed in his training to the ‘5 Hazardous Attitudes in Aviation’. These are: anti-authority, macho, invulnerability, impulsivity, resignation. I add two more to this: impatience, and complacency. Hazardous Attitudes in Aviation Anti-authority: Don’t tell me what to do. This is not just a push-back to regulations or directives from a person with any authority, but also a rejection of advice. Macho: I’m so good that I’ve got this nailed. This character knows it all, and can deal with anything, and will do it. Invulnerability: It won’t happen to me. Ah yeah, keep telling yourself that. It hasn’t happened to you, yet. Impulsivity: I’m going for it. Regardless of what’s going on and where your head’s at, you’re going to do this, right now, this minute. Resignation: There’s nothing I can do about it… How much margin for error have you left yourself? What about your Plan B, C, D and E? Impatience This could be a stepping-stone to impulsivity, or a cultural/mind-set state in itself. In its stepping- stone phase it can be a smouldering ember – you’re stuck on launch for some reason, you can’t get off the hill, the day is disappearing, then, BAM, a window of opportunity opens and the ember flares and you’re in the grip of impulsivity – but have you kept track of the changes in the day? Impatience also manifests itself in a lot of acci- dent reports I see. Pilots pushing hard to get up the ratings. Pilots trading up to higher spec equipment almost as soon as they’re in the air. What is your rush? Are your skills really that good? Do you really know how to get the most out of that wing? What are you trying to prove and to whom? Complacency: This flight will be the same as the last one here because the conditions are the same. You’re not assessing the day on its merits and adjusting your risk assessment accordingly. You aren’t thinking ahead to what could go wrong and working out what you’ll do about it. Do you recognise any of these traits in yourself? None of us are perfect, and it’s important we each put the ego aside, take a long, hard look inside and be objective about how we tick. This leads us to a couple of really important questions. How well do you understand your own head? How do you respond in high stress and dangerous situations? I know that I take about two seconds to begin responding to crazy shit going on. This can be in the air or on deck of a boat in the middle of a good storm. In those two seconds, my brain is changing up a gear, soaking up the informa- tion at a faster rate and starting to kick the body into response mode. Note the word ‘response’, not ‘reaction’. In my books, a reaction is just a set of movements that may not be best for the situation, usually the body’s first blind attempt to get out of Dodge. A way of reducing that time is to get expe- riential training in that particular circumstance and develop some muscle memory. In motorcycle training, we used to practise front wheel lock-ups on grass at slow speed to get the correct responses into our muscle memory. In the paraglider world, the equivalent is an SIV course. By being aware of how your mind and body processes and responds to stressful situations, you can build an extra margin of error into your flying. Do you take two seconds as well? Build that in. You should always be assessing the flight as it progresses, notice changes in the aerology as the day or your path progress. Ask yourself: ‘What can happen here? How do I respond to that? Do I have enough time and altitude to try a fix or get the reserve out?’ As I said in the Airwaves, Phil Hystek reckons you need three things to get out of the sticky stuff: altitude, speed and ideas. These all contribute to your margin for error. As they say in the podcast, pilots who add that margin tend to live longer. One of the biggest things you can do is some- thing I spoke of in my Airwaves – have that very mature conversation with yourself which runs something like this: ‘If I screw up or I don’t do certain things, I’m going to die doing this aviation thing.’ This is not fear-mongering, it is facing up to the reality in a very level-headed way. You need to have this knowledge firmly planted in your head, with all the attendant implications and consequences this means to the people in your life. We live to fly. This means you need to make it to a safe landing. Ask yourself, ‘If I do this, will I make it to that?’ If the answer is ‘no’, then don’t do it – put Plan B into operation, or Plan C, or land, don’t push on. There’s no harm in backing down and not flying or landing – you live to fly another day. Know that once you have launched, you are committed, and you need to concentrate wholly and solely on making it to that safe landing above all else. In the podcast, the guys talk about the positive power of negative thinking. If you are thinking about the stuff that can go wrong, you are looking out for the warning signs and indicators, you’re tuned in to your own mind and body and its responses and you’re thinking ahead in either making a deci- sion to fly, or, if you’re already in the air, planning ahead to what you might need to do to make it to a safe landing. As I write this, our Ops Team is working on our first fatality for the year. A visiting pilot from Hong Kong is now no longer with us. We in the Ops Team extend our condolences to his family and friends. Please people, re-read the Airwaves, listen to the podcast, read this again, then go away and have a good, long, hard look inside. And fly safe. The 5 (or 7) Hazardous Attitudes in Aviation The 109th episode of Gavin McClurg’s most excellent Cloudbase Mayhem podcast dropped in mid-January. In this episode, Gavin talks with Jeff Shapiro and Will Gadd about some of the hazards we face as pilots. by Iain Clarke, Safety Management Officer