SAFA Skysailor Magazine

34 SKY SAILOR July | August 2024 about two seconds to begin responding to crazy shit going on. This can be in the air or down 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 information at a faster rate and starting to kick the body into response mode. Note the word response, not react. A reaction in my books is just a set of movements that may not be best for the situation and is usually the body’s first blind attempt to get out of Dodge. A way of reducing that time is getting expe- riential training in that particular circumstance and get some muscle memory happening. In motorcycle rider training we used to practice front wheel lockups on grass at slow speed to get the correct responses into the muscle memory. In the paraglider world, the equiva- lent is an SIV course. By being aware of how your mind and body processes and responds to stressful situations you can build in an extra margin of error into your flying. You take two seconds as well? Build that in. You should always be assessing the flight as it progresses, noticing changes in the aerology as the day or your path pro- gresses. 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?’ Ask Phil Hystek and he will tell you that you need three things to get out of the sticky stuff: altitude, speed and ideas. You can take one of those away, but you will cut your safety margin. Take two away though… These all contribute to your margin for error. As the guys in the podcast point out, pilots that add that margin tend to live longer. One of the biggest things you can do is to have a very mature conversation with yourself that 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 that this would mean to the people in your life, every single time you go to fly. 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 to that 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. But know that once you have launched, you are commit- ted, and you need to be concentrating wholly and solely on making it to that safe landing above all else. 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 respons- es and you’re thinking ahead in either making a decision 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. So, folks, have listen to the podcast , read this again, then go away and have a good, long look inside. And fly safe. The 5 (or 7) Hazardous Attitudes in Aviation