Some thoughts on fear, training, and safety in general

The post on spins in an RV stirred some thoughts about the value of training, and flying with the best attitude.

Fear is a good thing. Flying in an airplane high up in the sky is not a natural environment for human beings. Fear is normal and healthy. Fearless people kill themselves all the time. I have lost many friends because they thought they were better than they were. I am always afraid I will someday think I am better than I am, or just get too complacent. I try to always be on guard against that attitude.

Back when I was getting my CFI, I decided it would be smart to take an aerobatic course, in case a student "did something stupid". I wasn't particularly interested in aerobatics, but it seemed like it would be a good idea to be prepared for anything they might throw at me. At the time, I was afraid of power on stalls, I did not like that feeling of the wing suddenly dropping, it felt out of control.

I signed up for Duane Cole's 10 hour aerobatic course, and I don't mind saying for the first couple of hours I was terrified! I did not like spinning, and that was the first thing he had you do. But gradually I started to notice the feel of the airplane, what it was telling me, how it was responding to control inputs, and before I knew it I was no longer afraid, I no longer felt that the plane was "out of control", even when it dropped a wing and went into a spin.

The loops and rolls, and especially the hammerheads, were fun. I was hooked.

After ten hours I went home unafraid of power on stalls, as a matter of fact I would practice the "falling leaf" where I would use the rudder to bring a wing up every time it dropped, left, then right, then left...etc - while holding the stick full back in the Cessna 152. Fun, fun, fun. If you are comfortable with stalls and spins - do them sometime, power off at first, then power on. It's a great exercise for rudder control and spin prevention. Instead of trying to use the aileron to bring up the low wing, you will automatically use the correct control - your rudder.

It's so easy to learn this stuff, but it can be scary for some of us - I'm saying that is normal.

Fear is a good thing, it can keep us out of trouble but too much can also overwhelm us - we panic and freeze up like the proverbial deer.

Training, and familiarity with strange situations, is the best way to prevent that from happening.

Training has kept me from panicking in emergencies, or even "situations". I have had a couple. Well, maybe part of me was panicking, but the rest was flying the plane and analyzing the problem. Without my training I might have given up, just felt helpless, and let things happen. I used to see that attitude in a small way all the time in new students in that, sometimes in light turbulence they would begin to let the plane fly them, instead of vice versa.

Training and attitude will keep you as safe as you can be. Training allows you to control your fears, both in knowing more about your aircraft, and in familiarity with the unknown.

Attitude is important in knowing your limitations and staying within them, but in my view if you can expand your limitations through more training, that's a good thing. Attitude is also very important in not getting complacent. Every time I fly, I try to have the attitude that while I love my plane, I don't entirely trust it, or any of the gadgets on board, and it might just do it's best to kill me.

I liken it to dancing with a most beautiful, sexy woman (or man, if that is your preference), who also happens to be a bloodthirsty vampire. While I love this dance, if I don't keep my eye on her every second, she will bite me in the neck as soon as she gets the chance!

Please be the best, safest pilot you can be. I will be presumptuous here and ask it in the name of your family and friends who love you, or even depend on you. I can say from far too many personal experiences of losing friends and acquaintances, it hurts a lot.

Excellent post Damon...some good wisdom in there, thanks

Damon, good post.

You describe how training and practice can allow a person to develop skills to overcome doing things that are just simply not comfortable/natural for them. This gives people a fighting chance to survive a situation that could kill you if you did not have the knowledge/training/skill to deal with it.

I have to totally agree with this idea----in my carrier as a fireman, I did the same thing many times, and am alive now to talk about it.


I might add that getting some training in a glider will provide additional skills, and comfort level that will benefit folks. I have avoided at least one crash due to prior training in a glider.

very good post.

N355DW said:

I liken it to dancing with a most beautiful, sexy woman (or man, if that is your preference), who also happens to be a bloodthirsty vampire. While I love this dance, if I don't keep my eye on her every second, she will bite me in the neck as soon as she gets the chance!

Click to expand...

I love this analogy. Great post.

Wise words Damon.... My struggle with acrobatics was air sickness. I hated stalls and steep turns in training....

I had done some limited acro but again i got sick... So i bought a Cassut and did acro until I'd get un comfortable then land. Wait til my gyros were caged and go again... I fell out of every possible maneuver and figured out how to get tbe heavy end pointed down... Pretty soon i was more interezted in flying than being airsick and never looked back....

Just do it!

Doug Rozendaal

airsick

I guess the title for this shoud be changed to confessions. I started in a J3 Cub at age 15. I was terrified by power on stalls and that was all my instructor seemed to want to do. It was not so much the attitude but rather my fear that the airplane was going to break from all the shaking. After a winter layoff I changed airports and instructors. I don't remember stalls being an issue after that. I was obsessed with airplanes and the thought of quitting was never a consideration.
The smell of fuel that always seemed to be present in the Cub always seemed to make me a bit sick. I always preferred the hot days when we flew with the doors open.
Just before my private checkride we were doing some airwork, not at a very high altitude. My instructor said something like "lemme have it I'll show you something". He banked the airplane very steeply and started applying a lot of top rudder. The airplane broke "over the top" and as it did he pulled the throttle to idle and that was my first spin.
We landed after that and I spent a couple hours recovering from my first real experience with being airsick.
I think that was the only spin I did with an instructor until I did my CFI training. However immediately after I got my Private I started doing the occasional spin and never really stopped.
I progressed to a point where I was very comfortable going almost vertical up or down, but was absolutely terrified of the idea of hanging from the seat belt.
An opportunity presented itself to race a Cassutt Racer.This required demonsating rolls to qualify to race. So after a long talk with myself I spent a couple of months teaching myself to do rolls in the Cassutt. The Cassutt was sold, a couple years of no aerobatics and then another Cassutt. This time I taught myself all the Sportsman meneuvers except snap rolls which were required in Sportsman at the time. I became more and more concerned about spins. I did two hours in the S2A with one of Bill Thomas's instructors. At that time Bill would not teach flat spins. BUT in two hours I did a lot of stuff including snap rolls, inverted spins and some negative G maneuvers. I started flying the single place Pitts and flew the Pitts for 21 years. I taught myself flat spins in the Pitts.
When I started instructing aerobatics full time I came up with my own unique program to ease people into acro without getting sick. To start with I would brief that anytime the trainee felt sick, we would immediately stop and either land or cruise down the beach. As a result in two years of full time instruction I never had anyone get sick in the airplane. The second part of my program was that we started out with some nice easy aileron rolls. 90% of the time I did not demonstrate a roll but simply talked the trainee thru the first one. I even found I could talk most non pilots through their first aileron roll. We would then progress to loops and then spins. By the time we got to spins most were starting to relax and enjoy themselves.
I never kept track of how many people I flew with but it was a lot. For two years I only took one day a month off. I never had anyone quit because they got sick or were afraid.

Fear

Early on in the Pitts era, the only two place areobatic airplane I had access to was a Citabria. My son would fly with me in the Citabria and each time we would plan on doing one aileron roll. Each time at liftoff the voice in the back said I don't want to go upside down. So we didn't. One day my son came to me and said can I ride home with --- in the Eagle? I said you know that the rule is you don't ride in that Eagle without doing at least one roll. He said I know but I REALLY want a ride in the Eagle. So he did his first roll in the Eagle. He asked to do spins and we did quite a few spins in the 152 before he got his Private.