With so much distraction and choice offered to us, it does not come as a surprise if some of us are confused. Do we really know what we want in life? And if we do know what we want, do we know how to achieve it and which route to take on our life’s journey?

Those are difficult questions to answer. Of course you could read some “self-help” books to guide you. Here I would like to offer you some guidance an tips from what I have learned from the cockpit discipline. So let us go on a flight and see how pilots do it.

Destination/Goals

First thing that a pilot does is to know where he is going; his destination. This is akin to setting our goals in life. This is important as otherwise we will be going through life aimlessly not knowing if we have reached or when we will reach our destination. As Steven Covey aptly puts it “begin with the end in mind.”

For any flight there is always the departure (starting point) and the destination. The destination does not change unless the situation at destination changes or some other circumstances dictate otherwise. When that happens there is always an alternate to the destination that the pilot will go to, which is not far from the destination.

In life too we should have a goal (destination) as well as an alternative goal (the alternate). Once we have set our goals we then need to think of how to get there; the journey. However we could set on the journey we have to know where to start; our present position.

Present position

If we do not know where we are and who we are, (our strength and weakness), how do we know that our goal is realistic and achievable. Just like an aircraft with a small tank, the pilot cannot expect to reach his destination flying non stop. He would have to land somewhere for refuelling and then continues on the journey again.

Before flight, the pilot has to program the onboard computers with the correct aircraft present position, telling the aircraft where it is. After that he has to review the aircraft maintenance log book to find out what are the unserviceable items (the aircraft’s strength and weakness) that could affect the journey . This is important as some unserviceable items could pose some restrictions. As an example if there is a unserviceable item for the airconditiong and pressurization system, the aircraft could still depart and proceed on the journey, however there could be a restriction on the cruising altitude (flying at a lower altitude). This then could cause the fuel burn to increase, resulting in the requirement to uplift additional fuel in order to proceed with the flight and thus less economical.

Learning from the cockpit discipline, knowing where we are, then knowing our strength and weakness (who we are) are crucial elements for us in order to plan our life’s journey.

In my next posting I will talk about the aircraft journey itself, what the pilots do to ensure the aircraft is on track.

Well, values are not visible to the eyes. We cannot see a person’s values. They are inside us, hidden. What we see are behaviors. These behaviors are manifestations of ones values. From a person’s behavior we can more or less tell the values that he or she holds. It is akin to a onion. Behaviors are the skin and we have to peel the skin one by one to get to the core which is the person’s values.

What values are important as pilots? Well this is very subjective. Ask a different pilot he or she could have different views on those values. Therefore what is being written here are my own personal views based on my years of experience as a pilot, trainer and manager.

There are many, however some of these values that come strong in my mind are, hard working, self discipline, a strong sense of belief in oneself. Apart from that, integrity and of course humility. I believe the above values has stood the test of time. It has worked well before, is working now and will continue to work in the future. I also believe that the above values are also applicable in our daily life and whatever profession that we are in. Let me explain why the above values are relevant and how it is applicable to the pilots’ profession.

Hard Working

A pilot has to know a lot of things, from technical knowledge to the soft skills. Apart from that he has to know the various procedures, both normal and non-normal. He has to also know the rules of the air and some countries practice a slight different rule compared to the rest of the world. As an example China uses metric for altitudes (height), whereas the rest of the world are using feet to measure altitude.

Every six months a pilot is subject to a proficiency test to determine if he is competent in flying the aircraft and in handling emergency situations. Apart from that he is also being tested on aircraft systems knowledge, both normal and non-normal procedures as well as his other skills such as command and leadership, teamwork and communication.

A pilot has to therefore work hard reading the various manuals and documents to be ahead of the game. he has to also remember most of the above procedures.

Only through shear hard work, religiously and continuously reading the manuals can a pilot build his self confidence in handling the aircraft in any situation. And this requires great self discipline, which ties up with the next value.

Self discipline

Once in the aircraft a pilot is on his own. Unlike on the ground where a staff has his or her superiors watching and monitoring him or her, there is no one breathing down a pilot’s neck or supervising him in flight. He is left with the other pilot to carry out the tasks and complete the mission in a safe, efficient, legal and economical manner. Of course the pilots actions are being monitored by the Flight Data recorder where all the flight parameters are being recorded.

Every aircraft manufacturer would have its own set of operating procedures. Each airline would also have its own sets of policies and procedures to compliment the manufacturer’s procedures.

Due to the above, and in the absence of someone monitoring their actions, it is important for a pilot to have a strong self-discipline in carrying out his duties following rigidly to the manufacture’s and his company’s standard operating procedures (SOP).

Belief in oneself

Oftentimes, being humans we downplay our own capabilities and therefore we are not performing to our full potential. Sometimes we are unsure if we could handle a difficult situation, due to our lack of experience or our sub conscious uttering negative words and putting negative thoughts in our conscious mind.

We all know the power that words possess. They can either encourage or discourage us. It is therefore important for us to use positive words of encouragement to enhance this self believe.

A pilot has been trained to handle every eventuality that he could possible face during flight. Despite all the rigorous training and tests that a pilot has to go through, what will make him perform exemplary is his believe in himself. Believe that he is good and capable of handling the situation.

I have seen situations (whilst conducting training) where a very junior and inexperience pilot just give up, not due to lack of skills, but simply because he did not believe that he could do it. After some coaxing using positive words and after doing some visualization exercise, he could then perform the task.

Integrity

The oxford dictionary defines integrity as  “quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” One might ask why integrity is important and how does it relates to flying and being a pilot?

This value is tied up with self discipline and I feel that integrity will not exist without self discipline.

Pilots represent an airline or organization. They are considered as ambassadors. it augurs well for the organization if one were to have high integrity.

We are humans and humans do make mistakes. Pilots are no different. A pilot with a high moral sense of integrity will admit to his own mistakes and not blame some else or blame to be a victim of circumstances.

Humility

In my opinion this is one of the most important value that a pilot must have.

A pilot’s training and the nature of his job will nurture someone to be confident of himself after a few years in his job. In my career I have seen many pilots, timid and under-confident when they first joined the organization, however after a few years they transformed into a different person. They became someone more outgoing, assertive and confident of themselves.

Confidence is an endless continuum. And if one is not careful, he or she could be on the extreme end of the scale and become over-confident and some to the point of being obnoxious. When that happens he could be dangerous to himself. What could be worst if he or her develops the attitude that nothing will happen to him or her. It can happen to someone else but not to him or her. He or she could become too bold. As the saying goes…..”there are OLD pilots but there are no OLD, BOLD pilots.”

Over-confident and bold pilots will get themselves into trouble very easily.

A Captain is the commander and therefore the leader of his team and the copilot is the number two in command. A leader needs to be respected (not feared) by his subordinates. The captain’s epaulets with his 4 gold bars will command some amount of respect from his or her subordinates. Respect, just like trust cannot be demanded. It is given to us when someone feels that we deserve to be respected or trusted. Since it is given to us by someone, it could easily be taken away from us if in the eyes of the person, we do not deserve the respect or trust anymore.

I strongly believe that humility is the way to earn that respect and trust and the beauty is that it is long lasting as long as we remain humble despite our position.

I am of the opinion that the above values are also applicable in other professions. They are universal values. I strongly believe that if one were to assimilate them they will be successful in life and will rise high up the hierarchy in his or her profession.

Posted by Azharuddin Osman

To better understand what goes on during a flight, and what lessons we can learn from the cockpit discipline, I am going to take you on a flight……

I want you to imagine this scenario………….

Imagine that all of us are in the aircraft now. The aircraft is on the ground on the tarmac preparing for departure.

You are amongst the last few groups of people to board the flight. You look around you and see that all the seats are almost occupied. You could see people still boarding the aircraft, rushing with their many and some heavy hand luggage. You notice some passengers looking anxious, some relieved as soon as they find their seats, whereas the majority looking nonchalant as they take their seats. You also notice the flight attendants walking up and down the aisles…..helping some of the passengers to their seats and to stow their hand carried baggage. You hear people talking, some loudly and some whispering.

The flight attendant in charge then comes up with the announcement, welcoming people on board and then followed by the safety announcements. Most passengers take safety for granted and therefore do not pay particular attention to the safety video being shown. A good majority of people do not realise the importance of this safety announcement. My advise is to pay heed to the safety announcement the next time you are on a flight, what to do during an emergency and the location of all the emergency exits. This knowledge could safe your life.

Everyone is waiting patiently for the aircraft to depart. You look out the window and see activities still going on, on the ground and after a while all the ground activities stopped.

The doors are closed now and the aircraft starts the pushback. You look at your watch and said quietly……..”not bad, we are right on time.” You feel that it would be a good flight……..or so you think!!!!!

The aircraft is taxiing now…….and soon after it stopped on the taxiway. You thought that this is normal as what had happened on all your previous flights.  After a while, you look out the window to see if there are any other aircrafts passing by……however you do not see any.

The aircraft has been stationary at the same place for quite a while now. You look around at the passengers and could see some anxious faces.

Then a few minutes later, the captain comes up with an announcement stating that they just discovered some aircraft defect that needed to be fixed before the aircraft could depart. He also mentions that they would have to return to the gate and have the engineers work on the defect. The captain goes on to say that the engineers would require between 30 to 45 minutes to work on the problem and that all passengers are to remain on board so that the delay could be minimized.

While waiting for the defect to be rectified, the flight attendants served a round of juice to all the passengers. Some 45 minutes later, the captain makes another announcement stating that the defect has been fixed and that they should be ready for departure as soon as the engineers finish their paperwork.

10 minutes later the aircraft departs………….

Once airborne everyone sigh, a sigh of relief.

The aircraft is safely in cruise. You thought of catching a movie or two and also to have your meal early so you could catch some sleep.

10 minutes before the descent, the captain comes up over the public address once again to provide an update on the flight as well as the weather at destination.

The captain says that “we can expect light to moderate turbulence during the descent due to the thunderstorm activities around the airport area.” The captain also mentioned to expect some delays to our arrival and we have to fly in circles (holding) for about 10 to 15 minutes as it is raining heavily at our destination airport and traffic is building up fast and we have to join the queue for the landing.

The aircraft is on its final approach to land now. You look around you. You could see some worried and anxious look on some of the faces. This is expected, as the turbulence that you are experiencing is quite bad and made worse with the lightning and thunder outside the aircraft.

Because of the severe weather, it is quite a challenge for the aircraft to maintain its flight path on the approach. You could hear the engines spooling up and down…..noisy at times and at times quiet and the aircraft being thrown around in the cloudy sky.

The aircraft is getting lower and lower and you could see some lights on the ground, in between the clouds. It is just a matter of time before we arrive.  Just as you thought the aircraft is about to touch down on the runway..….all of a sudden you hear this loud roar of the jet engines. At the same time, you could feel a sensation of the aircraft nose pitching up suddenly at a high angle……throwing you into your seat. This is made worse by the turbulence, thunder and lightning outside.

What goes on in your mind then? What sort of questions would you be asking yourselves? Perhaps some of those questions are as follows:

1)What is happening?

2)What is going on in the cockpit?

3)Are we safe?

4)Do the pilots know what they are doing?

Be rest assured that you are safe and the pilots DO know what they are doing because they have been trained to handle such situations and worse.

However, not many of us know what is going on in the cockpit. After 9/11 cockpit visits are no longer allowed. What we know is based on how Hollywood portrays in their movies and also perhaps from the air crash investigation series.

So, what can we learn from this cockpit discipline and training?

A lot………and a lot of them can be used in our daily life as well as in our work, no matter what discipline we are in.

All the posts in this blog will explain and provide answers to the questions above, and much more. From time to time I will post more articles on the lessons learned from the cockpit discipline.

Happy reading

Posted by Azharuddin Osman

Unlike the older generation of aircrafts, modern airplanes are capable of flying longer distances and can remain in the air for longer periods. As the popularity of point-to-point flights between cities increase, flights lasting between 14 to 18 hours are becoming the norm nowadays.

Have you ever wondered how do pilots navigate and find their way to the destination over such long periods of flying? Flights of such duration will pass through many time zones and will fly throughout the night. While the passengers are sleeping, how do the pilots see where they are going? How can the flight arrive at the destination and be able to land on runways only 150 feet wide, touching down precisely at the right spot?

When I first started my flying training, I was using the topographical maps for navigation. Finding my way around was by relying on visual cues. I had to fly low to remain below clouds to maintain visual contact with the ground. Landmarks such as roads, rivers, buildings and any other prominent features were used to determine my position. The navigation instruments fitted in those aircrafts were very basic and lacked sophistication, thus the reliance on ground features to find my way around during flight.

Topographical map

Nowadays we fly above clouds at altitudes above 30,000 feet for long periods. Instead of the topographical maps we use the “airways” map to help us navigate, to determine our position and to know where we are going.

The difference between the old generation of aircrafts and the new generation of aircrafts is in the equipment fitted that are used for navigation. These new equipment changes the way pilots navigate. We do not have to rely on ground features anymore. How could we when we have to fly throughout the night and over oceans for long periods of time.

With the modern aircrafts the route of the flight is programmed into the onboard computers before the flight, from takeoff right up to landing at destination. Apart from the routing, the pilots will also program other information such as the weight of the aircraft, the thrust required for takeoff, the initial cruise altitude as well as the forecast enroute wind for the selecting route.

Flight Management Computer where the route of flight is programmed

Once airborne the autopilot will be engaged and it will follow the route as programmed. The pilots will have to continuously monitor the accuracy of the route flown by the aircraft against the airways charts. Should there be a requirement for the aircraft to be re-routed for whatever reasons, the pilots will refer to the airways chart and reprogram the new route into the onboard computer. This process will be repeated until arrival at destination.

Sample of airways chart used for North Atlantic crossing

I must apologise for the long silence. Firstly it was due to a rather busy work commitment and secondly, my website has been compromised and I have only managed to recover the blog, thanks to the people in Hostgator.

During the absence I received some feedback and comments from quite a number of you colleagues and for that I am eternally grateful. Rest assured that I will respond to all your feedback.

Regards

Posted by

Azharuddin Osman

We often hear pilots making references to “the good old days.” One tend to reminisce about what had happened in the past, reliving the fond memories of flying in the good old days where things were less complicated and then making comparisons with what is happening in the present. Of course we can see a lot of differences and changes. If one were to ask which is the better era, can we form judgments and make our own conclusions? Would it be fair then? What I will do is not to make my own judgments, but to highlight the differences in the work culture that I observe over the years. My views could be controversial and I welcome any comments from anyone who views it differently.

I believe that the differences between the older generation and the younger generation of pilots are as a result of the social changes that we go through, the technological advancement in the aviation industry as well as the once rapid expansion in the airline business.

I see some changes in the attitude and values and therefore behaviour of some of the young pilots. These observations are validated by a vast majority of instructor as well as line pilots. Some pilots have become very calculative in their dealings and are more concerned with their own benefits rather than for the good of the majority. I would like to think that in the old days we were more of a collectivist group of pilots rather than individualists.

Some young pilots give the impression that they are not very serious about their work. This is evidenced from their preparation before the flight, even during training flights, where some just put in minimal efforts. This undesired behaviour shown very early in his career will not benefit him in the long run and could be detrimental to his progress.

I subscribe to the saying that “knowledge is power.” Not only that, knowledge gives you flexibility and flexibility gives you more options. This is very necessary in aviation when it comes to problem solving. The feedback I received from instructor pilots state that quite a number of young pilots under training lack not only systems knowledge but also knowledge about aviation in general. Whilst it might not be that obvious when flying domestically, this lack of knowledge is glaringly noticeable when he starts to fly long haul, where it involves strategic thinking on his part and good flight management skills. This perception of requiring only a superficial knowledge of the aircraft systems is perhaps exacerbated by the manufacturer’s emphasis of only the need to know information during the conversion phase of their training.

The rapid expansion in the airline business resulted in rapid movement of pilots from one fleet to another. Depending on the expansion phase and the requirements, the younger pilots do not stay on one fleet for a long time. Although this is perfectly safe and within the criteria set by the airlines, rapid movement could result in lesser experience based of pilots on the fleet and thus lesser opportunity for the younger pilots to learn from his more experienced colleagues.

I am not saying that the above observation amongst some of the younger pilots is in any way jeopardizing flight safety. They are perfectly safe as they meet the requirements set by the regulators and the airlines. Training will also ensure that they have achieved the required standard of performance.

However, if one were to strive to improve oneself and rise to be above the mediocre, then one has to do more to improve one’s skills, knowledge and a change of attitude. The motivation to do better have to be intrinsic and a “great” pilot does not depend on others or his airline for this.

In life one should strive for continuous improvement in whatever that one does. This concept is also applicable in flying and it is even more important for a pilot to continuously improve himself; his skills, knowledge and to learn from his own and other pilot’s experiences.

How many of us consciously and habitually review what we went through at the end of each day? The objective here is to learn from the day’s experiences. If it was something good, we would want to know what was it that we did well and why. On the other hand, we too would want to know and learn from our mistakes; lessons learned so that we will not repeat the same mistakes when faced with a similar situation.

You will notice that modern aircrafts are so safe and the systems are so reliable that most pilots will hardly encounter any serious problems throughout their career. Only a handful will face such problems. Does it mean that pilots who encounter more problems throughout his career are better pilots compared to someone who encounters little or no problems at all? Not necessarily so if he does not learn anything from his experiences and therefore will repeat the same mistakes again and again when faced with similar problems.

How can we improve ourselves and be better pilots if we do not encounter any problems throughout our career? Well the answer is simple, we can learn from other people’s experience. This can be achieved by talking with them during flight or over a cup of coffee. What we do is to collect all their experiences, problems and solutions and deposit them in our “experience” file that can be used when we are faced with a similar situation in future.

From my own experience, I notice that pilots who do not mix around socially and keep to themselves all the time are the ones who have problems with flying as well as problems interacting with other team members. Because they are “loners,” they do not get any feedback about their performance and therefore cannot make any comparisons with other pilots. Since they do not exchange views and ideas, their experience bank is rather limited and therefore cannot easily adapt to the various situations that he encounters during flight and in life. It will be very difficult for him to learn and thus improve himself.

In order for anyone to continuously improve himself he has to learn from his and other people’s experiences and I find the following model to be useful to achieve this:

Step 1 – The Experience

At the end of each flight I make it a point to mentally replay the flight, from take-off to landing, taking note of areas or sections of the flight that I did well and those that I was not happy with. After that I will pick and choose a particular area that I feel I could have done better and this will be the experience that I will use for the learning process. This step is merely to identify and prioritise which of the many experiences that I will use.

As an example on a particular flight from Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow, I am not happy with the “descent” phase of the flight, resulting in being high on my descent profile, resulting in a rushed approach and I feel that I could have done it better. I will then use this phase of the flight and proceed to the next step.

Step 2 – Review

This step involves data collection. What I will do is to replay that particular phase of the flight in greater detail and collect as much information as possible such as the descent speed, the weather, the distance from the airport when the descent was initiated, the workload during this period, the number of aircrafts in the vicinity, any distraction from the cabin crew, the air traffic control and any relevant information that I could use for the next step. Remember this phase is purely to collect as much information as you possibly can remember. Do not form any conclusions yet at this stage.

Step 3 – Concluding

Based on the information gathered from step 2 and my previous experience, I could then conclude why I ended up high on the descent profile – the cause or causes. During this phase, the more experience you are the better you will be at coming up with conclusions. If you think that you lack experience, you can always refer to or consult someone who is more experienced. If you are operating in a multi crew environment, talk to the captain. He is ever willing to volunteer information. In this way you are also learning from him.

Step 4 – Planning for next step

This last step is merely to come up with action plans, that is, the steps that I would use to ensure I will better manage my flight if I were to end up in a similar situation in future. What I am doing is to find solutions and remedial actions needed for that particular problem.

I have been using the above process and have been encouraged with the result. I am also using it during my training flights to help my trainees learn from their flying experience to further improve themselves. Just imagine what it will do to ourselves if we are to discipline ourselves to continuously learn from our experiences daily and as pilots after every flight.

After a rather long absence, I am back writing my blog again about life lessons from cockpit, thanks to Muhammad Nazri who is currently undergoing his flying training. Nazri posed the following questions and rather than answering directly to him, I thought of posting the answers in the blog so that the others could read them as well. The following are his questions:

a) What does it take to be a great pilot and what attitude should a pilot possess?

b) What kind of habit that a pilot has to instil in ourselves so that it will become a routine and discipline that can make us to be a better pilot?

c) Compared to yourself in the old days and young pilot nowadays, do you notice if there is any gap or lack in skill, knowledge and discipline in fresh pilots and if there is any, can you describe why and how to encounter it?

d) What does it take to be a great pilot and what attitude should a pilot possess?

The above are powerful questions and very subjective. If I were to ask different pilots I would probably get different answers. One can solicit views from different people, and the answer would again be different. A passenger’s view of a good or great pilot would be different from the ground staff’s view, another different view from someone who works closely with pilots compared to someone who is not directly involved with pilots. I guess that it is in everyone’s mind that a good pilot is someone who is cool, calm, collected and confident under pressure and they are absolutely right with the above views.

I too agree with the above view plus a few more of my own perceptions that are based on my own experience after being in the profession for over 30 years as a management pilot, instructor, trainer and line pilot. The following are my views:

1. State of mind. If one were to ask me the difference between a great pilot and an average one, I would dare to say that it is in his “state of mind.” The first thing a great pilot must have is a good, positive mental attitude. He must be disciplined, confident, relax and focus in what he is doing. There is no substitute for a strong discipline. When he is flying, he is on his own and if he is in command of the airplane, there is no one to tell him what to do or what not to do. He therefore has to be disciplined and follow a set of rules, which is the “standard operating procedures.” Discipline will also make him knowledgeable, meticulous in his work and has the attitude to continuously learn from his experiences.
2. Beliefs. Next is in his beliefs. It is basically a guiding principle, what pilots think to be true; his feeling about what is certainty in life. It is assumptions he has about himself, other people, his work, and the world. His beliefs could be limiting or they could be empowering to him. In flying a pilot faces challenges all the time, perhaps much more compared to someone working on the ground. If he believes that he cannot do something, there is a good chance that he will behave in such a manner that will cause him to fail, by not trying hard enough (give up), or by doing things to sabotage himself in some way. It is therefore necessary to have beliefs that will empower him to carry out his tasks well, and for him to be able to overcome all obstacles that he is faced with.
3. Skills. A great pilot has to be skillful. This is his bread and butter. He should be able to fly the aircraft well. By flying the aircraft well I mean with great accuracy and precision. He should not settle for a mediocre performance. He should strive for perfection and this takes a lot of hard work, practice and discipline.

The above to me are qualities of a great pilot. The following diagram will illustrate these qualities.

From the above diagram which one is more important of the three? Well to me all are important and necessary. However before one could acquire the skills, one has to have the right mental state and empowering beliefs. With these two qualities acquiring the necessary skills becomes easier. By having the above qualities he will also become more confident of himself. However he has to always remind himself and be careful of the tendency of becoming over-confidence. I have seen people who become so over confident of himself to the point of being obnoxious in his behaviour. To prevent this from happening, another quality that a great pilot must have is “humility.” This comes from knowing oneself, your strengths and weaknesses and respect for others, be they your working colleagues or any man on the street.

If you are a great pilot and you know about it and you are humble about it, you can walk tall and gain respect from your working colleagues and whoever that you are dealing with. You will truly enjoy this profession and will be forever remembered.

Each day when we go through life we will encounter events. Some of them could be new to us whereas some others could be the same events that we routinely faced before. These events could be problems, hardships or pleasant encounters. At the end of the day we go back to our home, take our well deserved rest and wake up the next morning to face another day. We will do this day in and day out, years after years going through life’s experiences. But, do we learn anything from these experiences? And how many of us will take the trouble to reflect on the day’s experiences that we went through and make an attempt to learn something from them? If only we were to discipline ourselves and learn from all of our experiences we will definitely develop to be a better person than what we are now.

The following is my four step process that I use to learn from my experience in flying that we can also use to learn from our daily life experiences:

Step 1 – The Experience

At the end of each flight I make it a point to mentally replay the flight, from take-off to landing, taking note of areas or sections of the flight that I did well and those that I was not happy with. After that I will pick and choose a particular area that I feel I could have done better and this will be the experience that I will use for the learning process. This step is merely to identify and prioritise which of the many experiences that I will use.

As an example on a particular flight from Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow, I am not happy with the “descent” phase of the flight, resulting in being high on my descent profile, resulting in a rushed approach and I feel that I could have done it better. I will then use this phase of the flight and proceed to the next step.

Step 2 – Review

This step involves data collection. What I will do is to replay that particular phase of the flight in greater detail and collect as much information as possible such as the descent speed, the weather, the distance from the airport when the descent was initiated, the workload during this period, the number of aircrafts in the vicinity, any distraction from the cabin crew, the air traffic control and any relevant information that I could use for the next step.

Step 3 – Concluding

Based on the information gathered from step 2 and my previous experience, I could then conclude why I ended up high on the descent profile – the cause or causes.

Step 4 – Planning for next step

This last step is merely to come up with action plans, that is, the steps that I would use to ensure I will not end up in the same situation on my next flight to the same destination.

I have been using the above process and have been encouraged with the result. I am also using it during my training flights to help my trainees learn from their flying experience to further improve themselves.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Job stress comes in many different forms and affects our body in various ways. Although flying can be fun and therapeutic to some, however to us pilots flying is a profession and therefore we cannot run away from job stress. The sources of job stress and the stressors could be the same as any other jobs; they could be people related or equipment related.

Stress can lead to burnout, causing people to become unhappy and less productive in their work. Job stress will not only affect our health it will also affect our home life as well. Low levels of stress may not be noticeable; slightly higher levels can be good for us to enable us to function at our peak level of performance; whereas high levels of stress can be harmful, contributing to chronic disease.

Flying is a stressful profession. As pilots it is therefore important and crucial for us to carefully manage our stress level in order for us to perform at our peak and at the same time to have some available space and reserve to manage the increased stress level during non-normal situations.

Let us take a look at the diagram below. Assuming that a pilot starts work at a stress level at point “A.”Throughout the flight his stress level will vary according to the situation in the cockpit. Now assuming that he has a non-normal situation and his stress level is now increased. Since his stress level when he started work was relatively low, he still has some “reserve” left during the non-normal situation (his stress level is still below his tolerance or coping level).

[singlepic=85,320,240,,center]

If however he were to start work with a rather higher stress level of “B” and assuming the same conditions exist, now during a non-normal situation, his stress level will be above his tolerance (coping) level. This can be dangerous as his performance will be affected. He might exhibit stress symptoms that could affect his thoughts, feelings and behaviour and that could be detrimental to the flight.

Written by Azharuddin Osman