Keep your head in the game

But what about the sometimes long and low-workload periods of cruising flight? Sometimes hours can go by with little for pilots to do other than monitor a situation that’s hardly changing, or following a predictable, preset path that’s been traveled many times before.

Pilots have been known to get so bored flying straight and level on autopilot that they mentally check out. In 2009, the crew of a Northwest Airlines Airbus A320 overflew their destination in Minneapolis by 150 miles because they’d been delving so deeply into their company’s pilot scheduling program on laptop computers that they missed repeated radio calls and text messages. (The FAA subsequently revoked their licenses and ended their careers.)

General aviation pilots have a multitude of inviting distractions, too. And with aerial internet connections gaining popularity, we’ll likely have even more in the future. So here are some ideas, activities, and tricks to keep your head in the game as you uneventfully navigate between distant places.

1. Find airports. Look around for runways big and small, and then identify them on your chart. Or locate them on the chart first, then find them out the window. This exercise trains you to recognize airports that can be surprisingly challenging to see, especially at night when they’re among city lights.
   
   You’ll get so good at this game that you’ll find unmarked private airstrips in all kinds of locations, their telltale windsocks being the giveaway. And the skill becomes especially useful when going to new locations because you’ll be able to start your descent and maneuver for landing miles away instead of right over the top of the airport. You’ll also recognize trends such as smaller airports being located on the outskirts of towns next to golf courses, cemeteries, and sewage treatment plants. In fact, spotting one of those places is almost as good as seeing the runway itself because you know you’re getting close.
   
   Also, if you suddenly have a problem that requires an immediate landing, you’ve already got the field in sight.
2. Identify prominent places. Mountains, rivers, racetracks, and stadiums allow you to pinpoint your location with absolute certainty. And many of these visual features are just interesting in their own right. Try to guess the height of a mountain peak, then identify it and find the altitude of its summit on the chart. You’ll quickly be able to tell whether you’re above or below it, and by how much—a skill that can serve you well in backcountry flying and other aviation pursuits. Find out the names of rivers and see which way the water is flowing. In low-visibility conditions, following a river downstream may be the best way to avoid rising terrain.
3. When do we get there? Write down and periodically update the time, distance, and heading to your destination. If you lose electrical power, or the GPS fails, you’ll be better able to navigate to your destination with as little as a compass and a clock.
4. Push buttons. Bring along the manuals for your cockpit avionics and practice building, deleting, and modifying flight plans, as well as using some of their more arcane features. Practice switching to the Nearest Airports page, then loading the frequencies in a standby radio, and finding their physical locations out the window. Use the OBS (omni-bearing selector) feature to intercept a particular course to an airport or a navigational fix. Find specific VOR radials and track them along your route, or across your route. Don’t be satisfied with Direct To and the magenta line for navigation. Learn and practice some of the advanced features that may help you fly with greater precision, or get out of a bind, in the future.
5. Memory items. Get out the aircraft checklist and review the memory items marked in bold print. Then practice them by saying each task out loud and touching the proper control. You don’t have to execute the checklist, just get intimately acquainted with it. Engine failure, engine fire, and off-field landing procedures should be known by heart, and touching each relevant knob and lever in flight will help make them real and automatic in case you ever need to perform them.
6. What if? Imagine what-if scenarios. What would you do if engine rpm slowly dropped? What if the outside air temperature fell below freezing and there were clouds beneath you that you had to descend through? What would you do in case of an electrical failure? Or a radio failure? What steps would you take to fix these problems, or deal with them? If something does happen, you’ll be better equipped to respond.
7. Visualize your descent and landing. Envision every step as you review the descent and prelanding checklists during cruise. Picture yourself doing everything just right, and in the correct order. Anticipate what runway is likely to be in use, and create a Google Earth-style mental image of the landmarks you’re likely to see as you get close. Landing on Runway 27 near sunset tells you that you should expect to be looking into the sun on final approach, and that mental image will help your orientation as you maneuver toward it.
8. Play mental games. Calculate when to switch fuel tanks so that you’ll land with exactly equal amounts in both wings—then measure how close you came when you get to the fuel pump. Estimate the exact time you’ll reach the halfway point in your journey. If there’s a prominent point ahead on your route, try to figure out exactly when you’ll overfly it.
9. Bogeys and bandits. Exercise your eagle eyes by spotting airborne traffic as far away as possible. If you’ve got another pilot or passenger in the airplane with you, encourage them to play along. If you’re alone, try to spot the traffic your ADS-B system does.
10. Weather watch. Use your in-cockpit tools to identify weather trends and how conditions are holding up compared to preflight forecasts. Are conditions at your destination getting better or worse? How wide is the temperature/dew point spread, and is it widening or narrowing? What about winds aloft along your route? Can climbing or descending provide a speed or range advantage?
11. Offer a $100 reward. If flying an airplane with retractable landing gear, offer your passengers $100 if they catch you below traffic pattern altitude with the landing gear in the wrong position. You’ll remember during flight that you made the offer, and you don’t want to have to pay up, so you’re even less likely to forget to lower the landing gear. But if you do, and your passenger calls it out, it’ll be the best Benjamin Franklin you ever paid out because it will have saved you so many more.
12. Isometric exercise. Flex your arms, squeeze your legs, do pullups on the metal crossbar frame of a Husky or a Super Cub. Shift your weight, twist and turn your head, roll your shoulders, and rub your neck. Anything that promotes circulation and avoids fatigue-inducing pain can improve your state of mind and pilot performance.
13. Give yourself treats. A piece of hard candy. A bite of beef jerky. A cold drink.

Don’t just wolf them down. Set a short-term goal, such as passing Chicago, and promise yourself a treat when you reach that milestone. Then savor the reward when you accomplish each mini-task. It’s surprising how motivating such small, self-given treats can be on a long flight.

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