In both situations, the athlete and the aviator used highly refined skills in focus, confidence, and composure - the key elements of performance under pressure regardless if that pressure is chosen or unexpected.
Performing well under extreme pressure takes specific ongoing physical and mental training like that found at the Olympic Training Center. World-class athletes endure grueling physical training but cannot attain or keep titles without mental training. The mental training prepares competitors to challenge rivals with confidence and push beyond perceived limits to win medals. Mental training improves reaction time and strengthens performance under stress. For flyers, that means reducing pilot error. Aviators lose mental proficiency faster than physical proficiency, so exercising the mental edge is necessary in order to have it when needed. Emergencies demand composure, accurate recall of procedures, and fast responses. Pilots have wrecked airplanes when solutions like switching fuel tanks were available, but they simply could not complete the task under pressure.
Since flight reviews barely touch upon mental training, there is no established manner to preserve or enhance mental proficiency once the knowledge and practical tests are completed. Learning from Olympic athletes, aviators can improve decisiveness. When you can perform a skill under pressure, the learning can transfer to other areas of your life. The result is a person who can perform many tasks well regardless of the risk, environment, or intensity.
Mental Focus
At the onset of mental training, athletes set goals. Defining goals is as essential as having a coach, because it provides direction, feedback, and support. Goals also help aviators to pinpoint remedies for deficiencies. Begin by identifying weakness such as GPS usage, ILS approaches, or emergency procedures. Simply list deficiencies and restate them as a goal. Once these are defined, detail the steps to achieve your goals. Setting goals promotes faster learning, because progress is monitored while moving toward greater proficiency. As you achieve mastery, new goals become appropriate.
The ability to focus on the right things at the right time comes from setting goals and ongoing training. Joe Arnone, a cyclist and military and commercial pilot, went to the Olympic trials in 1992 and 1996. Arnone "set goals, trained, and built confidence...[because] to push myself, it took focus.... When you race against 2,000 racers, you can crash - you're joined like in formation flight. It's risky." Setting goals to increase focus on details can create rapid success. Without goals to monitor your gradual accomplishment, you might short-change yourself and avoid pushing into the next level of skill.
Arnone's athletic training later transferred to an aviation emergency. On a flight from Denver to Helena, Colorado, Arnone lost an engine. "I knew I was near Granite Peak, the highest peak in the state. I knew the mountains were there. The engine was rough. It was turbulent. I had to keep my wits. I had to keep altitude. I was by myself and had to do everything myself: the radio calls, deice, and shoot the approach." The key to Arnone's concentration is to "maintain aircraft control, separate from emotions, and keep attention. When you can, do more. If you stall, you die. If an engine quits...glide it in and don't lose confidence." Arnone's cycling success results from impressive physical and mental training. The goals he set to improve his concentration helped him place well in his sport and saved his life later during an in-flight emergency.
The power of imagination is the cornerstone of all top performance. Since the subconscious does not distinguish between reality and imagination, the mind can be tricked into thinking it has accomplished something already and you gain "experience."
Imagination drills are commonly used among star athletes to achieve objectives. They use imagery to increase motivation, perfect skills, refocus, and prepare for competitions. Pilots can do something similar. Imagining adjustments for crosswind landings can help achieve the correct technique. Just visualize a properly executed landing repeatedly to strengthen the mind/motor connections. When these connections are strengthened through imagination, adjustments are smooth rather than mechanical.
The important aspect in visualization is to use sensory details throughout the session. The more details in the mind's movie, the more potent the learning. Olympic downhill skier, Olympic coach, and aerobatic pilot Jim "Moose" Barrows asserts that visualization was the key to his skiing, and he uses it in his flying. For aerobatic flight, you "visualize the sequence. You visualize the hand movements, rotations. When ski racing, visualize the turns in progression; add in the terrain and other variables." Barrows warns, "If [an aerobatic] sequence does not go the way you planned, you pull power and analyze. You visualize the turns, spins, rotations - the whole sequence. Go back to basics. If the plane is not under control by certain parameters, I would get out."
Before each flight Barrows also visualizes emergency procedures, whether flying his Christen Eagle or his Beech Baron. "I visualize the emergency exit when doing aerobatics. I visualize how to unbuckle and get out. Every time I take off in the twin airplane, I visualize what to do if I lose one engine. I see the terrain and other details." Inserting detail into the imagery augments learning.
To mentally train for a forced landing, detailed visualization helps. Few pilots have ever experienced a forced landing, but everyone can imagine one. Envision a concise cockpit flow management while searching for a landing site free of fences, electric wires, or irrigation ditches. Listen to the sound of a silent glide or the whistling wind. Let yourself feel the yoke and back-pressure on your hands while holding thoughts of a successful landing. Keep emotions quiet and thinking clear. Feel arm movements as you shut off the fuel or pop your doors open just before landing. Details establish learning in an important way. If you ever have to make an actual forced landing, your mind will be convinced that it has "been there, done that," allowing you to handle the emergency with minimum distraction.
Armchair flying is a good way to exercise your imagination. With your eyes open, sit in your cockpit or on a chair at home and work through any emergency until you can do so easily. Use your checklist. Having your pilot's operating handbook handy allows you to look up questions. Add details like the landing site, weather, turbulence, or any distracting variable. Concentrate on a safe landing. Add more distractions as you become competent. Practice proper restart procedures on the ground using your checklist. Actually reach for the fuel selector valve and switch tanks, flip the auxiliary fuel pump, and "watch" the fuel flow indicator. Continue the checklist until "restart" has occurred. Practice until you can do the restart using your checklist to prompt if you forget a step. Then, pretend a restart is not possible, and continue to an engine-out landing. If the time comes to actually perform a forced landing, your process could be much smoother and timelier.
Confidence Building
Everyone has doubts and emotional stress, but through training top athletes are able to replace them with positive feelings. Self-confidence, also known in sports training as mental toughness, is vital to a well-trained athlete. There is an optimal level of confidence below which performance suffers and above which outcomes are impeded. Recalling our best past performance is a way to help bolster self-confidence. Setting measurable goals that gradually shift your comfort zone into maneuvers or emergency procedures that are more demanding help prove to yourself that you are capable. Remain realistic about abilities; overconfidence yields rogue pilots.
Flying backcountry wilderness strips was a dream for years. Doubts about handling my aircraft on backcountry strips surfaced. I told myself that backcountry flight was too risky. The truth was that I lacked confidence. To overcome this hesitation, I registered for the McCall Mountain/Canyon Flying Seminar in McCall, Idaho, and returned the next year for more backcountry exposure. Finally, I was ready for the Advanced Mountain/Canyon Flying Seminar at Sulfur Creek, Idaho.
Lori McNichol, CFII and owner of McCall Mountain/Canyon Flying Seminars, checked me out at one backcountry airstrip after another. As I began to understand the performance limitations of both my Cessna Turbo 206 and myself, confidence replaced doubts. I realized that with proper checkouts, I could handle almost any wilderness strip.
I tested my confidence by setting another, more challenging goal: to land on the Soldier Bar airstrip - a 1,600-by-20-foot runway that sits on a high bench with 1,000-foot canyon walls. The runway is not visible until the last quarter-mile of the approach, and it climbs steeply with two major humps at 450 feet and 905 feet respectively from the threshold. Then it doglegs to the right. Airspeed and altitude require precise numbers with tiny corrections. The advanced class instruction was the platform from which self-reliance grew. By the third day of five, I was certain that I could achieve my goal.
During the advanced class, instructors rotate among the students. My instructor for the third day was Holbrook Maslen, three-decade United Airlines captain, frequent Reno Air Race competitor, and backcountry flyer for 30 years. Watching a video of the approach and departure, ground school, and visualization were all tools that brought about my successful landing. The key to a perfect landing at this high-risk strip was to maintain confidence.
When Maslen pointed out Soldier Bar, I gulped and then immediately initiated my visualization. As in the visualization, the closer I came to the strip to look it over, my confidence and excitement grew. Initially the wind was not in our favor but it quickly calmed. We did a figure-eight approach, which allowed another look at the windsock. With confidence continually increasing, I continued for the back circle of the approach.
A granite outcropping obstructs final approach to the runway. I had visualized flying around the rock and swinging back to line up on final. Committed to land at this point, I managed the steep stabilized approach with airspeed - I was one with my aircraft.
Most competitive athletes have pre-competition routines to help them focus on winning and expel self-defeating thoughts. Rituals calm jitters and eliminate distractions while setting the performer's mind on competition.
Aviators can incorporate a mental ritual into the usual preflight. Forethought regarding potential situations, such as high winds aloft over mountain passes or malfunctioning navigational aids on your route can help avoid uncomfortable circumstances. Mentally rehearsing procedures before takeoff such as planning suitable engine-out landing sites can set up a successful flight.
Composure
After much practice, you will be a more proficient pilot and will be ready for the ultimate test of a real emergency. Jim Barrows realizes that "In order to make decisions, you have to get rid of distractions." Barrows knows that when you "concentrate and focus...all the big problems go away."
The result of your efforts will be the ability to generate enough positive energy to pull yourself out of a precarious situation.
You may recall a July 1989 accident in Sioux City, Iowa, when the synergy of a highly trained airline crew performed above normal capabilities. United Airlines Capt. Al Haynes and his crew crash-landed a DC-10 after a catastrophic engine failure that resulted in the loss of flight controls. Cockpit resource management teaches pilots to use everyone and everything as a resource, which was evident in the details of this mishap. Two pilots worked the yokes because one alone could not hold enough back-pressure. A DC-10 flight instructor who happened to be on board as a passenger joined the flight deck crew and controlled the throttles, using differential thrust in the two remaining engines to help steer the aircraft. Of 285 passengers and 11 crew, 175 survived the extraordinary ordeal.
Mental proficiency is always behind the right stuff. It enables wise choices and good decisions. As Wayne Handley has said since his box canyon incident, "As long as you have a choice, you have a chance." Choices are visible to clear minds.
Christina Chapman is a freelance writer in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. A retired psychotherapist who specialized in sports therapy, she is an experienced backcountry pilot and aerial photographer.
Anxiety
A culprit behind pilot error
When the National Transportation Safety Board reports that "pilot error" was responsible for an airplane crash, some wonder why competent pilots continued flight into instrument meteorological conditions, did not switch fuel tanks, or did not manually extend the landing gear. Hours logged do not seem to exempt pilots from error - experienced pilots and students alike have been guilty of pilot error. One way to view this confusing phenomenon is to consider the impact of anxiety on performance.
Anxiety is an emotion that triggers the fight-or-flight response when we're confronted with a threat. Occasionally victims develop severe symptoms of anxiety after suffering trauma such as surviving a crash landing. Regardless of its source, this uncomfortable emotion can hinder performance. At high levels it floods the mind, resulting in diminished problem-solving and physical performance. Random thoughts interrupt rational processes. Unfinished thoughts become incomplete actions - like turning the fuel-selector valve to "off" rather than to the right or left tank. Distress, on the other hand, is actually good because it is a survival instinct that creates an impetus to perform. Those unfamiliar with the positive aspects of fear attempt to force it away, deny it, or distort it. It then magnifies like a disobedient child being ignored. The higher the anxiety, the more narrow attention becomes, and attention to relevant information is obstructed. Reduced attention impairs the successful handling of emergencies.
When Wayne Handley crash-landed in a box canyon and survived, he recalls feeling dread. Once he accepted that "I am going to die in this canyon," he could then "decide how and when I was going to die." Paradoxically, Handley took control back by not fighting fear. He was then able to see a chance for survival. He had to land on a 60-degree tilt on the canyon wall. "Airspeed was crucial. I had to get the nose down to increase speed in order to get the nose high enough to match the flight path with the terrain before I hit." When he pointed the nose down, Handley said, "This is it." He functioned at peak performance. He overcame panic, achieved total concentration, and walked away without a scratch.
Mental training is particularly effective in combating anxiety. Utilizing Olympic mental training techniques, one can set goals to minimize disabling anxiety. These suggestions are used by world-class athletes to ward against unwanted anxiety.
- Admit you are afraid.
- Define your problem in detail.
- Create an affirmation such as, "I can handle this situation."
- Visualize with sensory detail.
- Increase intensity gradually in visualizations.
- Use affirmations to filter unwanted thoughts. These help to direct thinking. List positive affirmations like, "I can land there" or "Fly the plane."
- Act "as if" when you question the effectiveness of mental techniques. You force yourself to believe in a positive outcome. What do you have to lose?
- Use anchors - sensory cues - to remind you to stay relaxed or focused. Initiate a physical cue when you depress the transmit button to declare an emergency. Allow this pressure, practiced many times in your mind, to trigger a calming response such as "Speak clearly, stay focused."
- Use a checklist. Calmly read the procedures or engage a passenger to read it.
- Create a concise counter-anxiety checklist attached to the rear of your normal checklist or another handy spot. It can include reminders to take a deep breath or focus.
Record-breaking speed skier Kirsten Culver is a good example of an athlete who used mental exercises to cope with fear. Ironically, she was terrified of speed. Reaching speeds in excess of 120 mph on two skinny boards is danger that most cannot imagine. Her fear interfered with performance until it had to be confronted. Culver's first step was to admit that she was afraid. She visualized runs repeatedly in her mind until she reached the speed and balance she wanted.
Good results build on themselves. The more you focus on the positive, the more positive options are generated. Demonstrating mental composure in the cockpit is an attainable goal once you establish momentum in that direction. With fear under control, the adventure of flying emerges. -Christina Chapman
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