Page 10 - Dear aviator...

Fear

The general consensus about pilots is that they will always be in control, fearless,
cool; that they have had any hint of uncertainty and doubt hammered out of them;
that in case of an emergency - say a wing falls off - they would deal with it without
breaking a sweat. Now, this may very well be true - god knows the cool and
collected reaction of my many instructors as I consistently tried to kill them. But
let’s face it: my heart started thumping a bit when I was presented to my first steep
turn in the Foxbat, with its completely transparent side-panels, and I may or may
not have let out a high-pitched squeal upon entering my first stall.
During training you may experience many scary moments. I know I have but I
managed to distil them to two main categories of fear: fear due to the aircraft itself
and fear due to “other”.
Fear due to the aircraft stems from a sudden and unexpected change in the aircraft
behaviour. Examples of this could be a stall, an incipient spin, engine failure
(simulated or otherwise); but it could also be more subtle things such as a
perceived change in engine noise or a rattle that wasn’t there before. I also believe
that this is the easiest to explain and to get rid of. The prescribed manner of
dealing with this fear is to be aware of and understand what is happening to the
aircraft, to know what forces are involved, the expected reaction of the aircraft and
the procedure on how to resolve the so-called Undesired Aircraft State (UAS). I
would also add that repetition plays a big role in taking the bite away from fear.
Also, this type of fear may manifest itself regardless if you are with an instructor or
on your own.
Fear due to “other” involves mostly a sense of uncertainty such as not knowing
where you are, being aware that there is traffic around you but not knowing exactly
where, being unsure of procedures joining the circuit at a non towered aerodrome
or not knowing how, when and why to contact air traffic control. This is another
one that I found myself dealing with, especially in my earlier solo navigation flights;
and this kind of fear never really went away and the primary cause of fear for me
was either hearing traffic in my vicinity I could not see and weird noises coming
from the engine or other parts of the aircraft. Another source of anxiety was the
presence of unknown indications on my flight instruments - most aircraft I trained
in were equipped with the so-called glass cockpit or EFIS (Electronic Flight
Instrument System) a digital screen which collects all the information traditionally
indicated by the old-school round “steam gauges” - or the knowledge that a
particular aircraft had an issue reported by a previous pilot and always being on
edge waiting for the issue to present itself again (one aircraft I flew had the issue of
flaps which would deploy or retract uncommanded - something you really don’t
want happening when you’re low and slow and on final for landing).
And again the solution to coping with this type of fear lies in dealing with it
regularly. I became anxious because of unseen traffic - the following flight I made it
a point to pay closer attention to the radio chatter which may help me locate an
approaching aircraft; I heard a weird noise coming from the engine - were all my
engine parameters correct? If yes, perhaps I just imagined it. By being aware of the
aircraft’s known quirks you may know what to expect; aircraft ABC is known to

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