Whether we mean to or not, we all look at each day of our lives and assign a plus or minus sign to it. Even when we're in the middle of it, we'll pick our head up from the particular ditch that our life says must be dug and alternately say, "This isn't too bad," or "Oh, man, how much more of this can I take?" The point is that very few of us live the same day two days in a row, and almost no one is the same person two days in a row. Between the pressures of life and our constantly varying personal characteristics, some days we can do no wrong, and other days our brain seems hopelessly scrambled.
The vernacular shorthand for that is: We're having a good, or a bad, day.
Good and bad days don't go away just because we close the aircraft door. The really serious part about this is that we often don't stop to think about what kind of shape we're in, either physically or mentally, until the engine is running and we're hurtling down the runway. When we're in that situation, don't you agree that it's always better to have your head in the game?
Whether you're mentally fit to fly or not isn't necessarily a function of how much stress life has been handing you lately. Regardless of what's been happening, the important question is how you handled the pressure. In other words, has a really bad day at work, for instance, done damage that you're going to bring into the cockpit? Or did you leave your problems in the office parking lot?
For a lot of folks, flying is an escape. You've left "that" life behind and are happily entering the one that really counts. But that's not always the way it works. In fact, it's even more important for those folks who use an airplane as an emotional escape to recognize that flying can't be relied upon to set your mind straight. If flying lifted all of the emotional and mental burdens off your shoulders every single time, psychiatrists would try to outlaw airplanes because they would put shrinks out of business.
In broad terms, there are two aspects of life that can cause problems in the cockpit: pressures brought about by simply living life (office, financial, kids, marriage, et cetera) and the normal physiological ups and downs that we all experience daily regardless of what else is going on. The world may be coming down around you, but because your mind is having one of those good days, you plow through it and come out tired but with your brain intact and cookin'. Conversely, you could be having a day in which absolutely nothing is going wrong, but because you're short on sleep, your thought processes and judgment are below par. Obviously, the worst-case scenarios are when the curves cross - in one day your check to the IRS bounced, your car was stolen, you got laid off, and on top of that your brain was having an off day to begin with. Some days it's better to just stay in bed.
The real fun is determining where your head is at before you commit to flying. This is important because you can make the decision not to fly at any time before the airplane leaves the ground. So, you have a huge period of time, beginning when you leave the house or office for the airport and ending when the airspeed indicator reaches takeoff speed, in which to evaluate yourself and determine whether you really are ready for the cockpit.
Incidentally, don't think that just because you've told yourself to go flying that you have to go. Many of us can point to times when we were actually in the cockpit with the engine running and we pulled the mixture and got out - something about the way we were handling things told us our thoughts were anywhere but in the cockpit.
Often we can predict when we're going to be too distracted to fly because civilization has a nasty habit of becoming very uncivilized and the process is often quite obvious. In fact, because of the expense involved, those who can most easily afford to fly are also those who most often live lives that bear a close resemblance to a pressure cooker. Flying isn't inexpensive, and a job that generates a lot of money usually is a job loaded with built-in distractions.
One of the first clues that you're likely to be too distracted to fly is having some major, life-altering event happen to you. The death of a loved one or the loss of a job can do major unseen damage, and it's tempting to seek solace in the cockpit. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. It depends very much on your ability to "compartmentalize." Are you able to erect a wall between you and the emotions and thoughts that can cause you to lose focus? Better yet, how can you tell if you have breaches in your defense and bad stuff is leaking into your flying?
Some of the best indications that your performance is lacking can be seen before you leave the house or office. For instance, did you have difficulty finding your car keys because you absentmindedly put them where they weren't supposed to be? More important, did you just resign yourself to the search for them or did you get irritated, maybe even angry? Kicking your dog across the living room because you can't find your keys is a good indication that you probably shouldn't be flying. Then again, losing your keys can be very frustrating, and many of us have dogs that always seem under foot, so to speak.
Your entire performance prior to getting to the airport can easily be analyzed to show how you are likely to do once you get in the airplane. No big red warning flags will pop up (unless you actually did kick your dog), but there will be subtle indications that something is leaching away some of your brainpower. For instance, did you have to think a second before putting the car key in the ignition? Did you almost miss a stop sign? A sure indication is missing the turn to the airport. And don't tell us you haven't done something similar. We've all looked up and suddenly realized we're a block past where we're supposed to be. Is that any condition to be in when you're getting ready to fly?
Watch yourself when you get to the airport. Mentally separate your mind from your physical being and look at yourself from the outside as if you are someone else. Especially watch what you do with your hands when you get around the airplane. For instance, even though you've preflighted the airplane a thousand times, is there a slight hesitation while you try to decide what to do first?
If you pop open the cowling, check the oil, and then, after buttoning it up again, can't remember whether you tightened the dipstick, maybe you'd better step back and take a deep breath. Sometimes we've done certain procedures - e.g., checking the fuel and oil levels - so many times that our hands make the motions, but if we're distracted, we're doing everything on autopilot and our brain isn't attaching any importance to what we do. We pull the dipstick, it says six quarts, but we don't ask ourselves whether that's right or not. We stick the tank and a few seconds later, we can't visualize where the fuel level actually sat.
If you find yourself thinking about financial problems, a love affair gone wrong, etc., while you're supposed to be getting an airplane ready to fly, maybe this trip isn't absolutely necessary. When you're preflighting an airplane, you can't afford a shift in focus. Being distracted during a preflight may not be as traumatic as thinking about your tax return while you're on short final, but even on the ground, we need to do things right.
The most common indication your head may not be totally in the game is when you get in the cockpit. If you are a low-time pilot or new to this particular cockpit, it is to be expected that you have to spend a minute or so figuring out where everything is. If, however, you've been flying this airplane for some time and you have to force yourself to think of the next move, that's not good. If during the runup you find your hand on the mixture rather than the prop control, this also isn't good. Keep an eye open for your hands starting to do something before your brain is engaged.
Any hesitation when you're making a move that should be automatic and driven by a checklist is grounds to seriously evaluate yourself before taking off.
A good habit to get into is to consciously work at preparing yourself to fly even before you leave home. The goal is to spend the entire trip to the airport thinking about nothing but the upcoming trip, whether you plan to fly 500 miles or just spend an hour in the pattern. From the minute you pat your dog goodbye you should be mentally cleansing your mind and shifting your focus into av-mode.
The final mental check comes after you have preflighted the airplane and strap in. For just a second drop your hands into your lap, close your eyes, and listen to yourself. Try to relax. This should take only a few seconds, during which you should be monitoring the thoughts that are going through your mind at that moment. Ideally, every thought should have something to do with the airplane and this particular flight. If you try to think airplane but money, or girlfriends, or something else keeps interrupting, it's obvious that you won't be flying with all four burners lit.
The process of forcing your mind to focus on the airplane applies to students as much as it does to certificated pilots. Even though the student will have someone looking over his shoulder, it won't always be that way. Besides, it's difficult to listen to an instructor and correctly use his input when outside influences keep vying for your attention.
A certificated pilot has already built up a level of experience that will, to a certain extent, help make up for less-than-perfect brain function. A student, however, is in the process of absorbing information. If it's absorbed incorrectly it can cause long-term difficulties. Also, the act of learning means the student has to try to put the instructor's words into action, and if he or she is having a terrible time and keeps making mistakes those failures will breed frustration. The frustration of trying but continually failing is one of the worst things that can happen to a student. If you're having one of "those days" and the instructor doesn't see it, just tell him or her that your head isn't into it and terminate the lesson. No reason to spend money and time doing something that actually may be having a negative effect.
Regardless of what has generated a bad day, be it an external force or an internal black mood, there simply is no excuse to go flying with half a brain. If it's not all there, call it a day. There will always be tomorrow.
Budd Davisson specializes in edge-of-the-envelope instruction including tailwheel, aerobatics, transitions into super-high-performance aircraft, and seriously short runways. Davisson says, "These are intense instructional environments, and I enjoy watching students overcome their doubts and do what they thought was impossible."
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