Last week I sent out an email to about a dozen of my building/flying RV friends asking for their assistance with mounting my wings permanently. I finally felt like I was ready to tackle this task and was quite excited about the prospect of it. I mean, after hanging the engine and doing my canopy, this had to rank right up there with a pretty big milestone on the project. I received a great response--I've got great friends, as almost all of them were eager to lend a hand and help out.
I knew when I set the ball in motion with the email invite, I was going to be scrambling to get ready for this. This was by design, I wanted to add this aggressive deadline to help motivate and push me to get a lot done this week. Alas, here we are...almost halfway through the week, and I have accomplished quite a bit so far. But...try as I might, I am just not there yet and probably wont be by Saturday morning. There are still crucial things I wanted to get done.
So far, this seems like a pretty standard story that most builders have probably gone through...right? Well, I tend to always be looking for lessons in life...nuggets of wisdom that I can extract from situations that come up. A good pilot is always learning. This, on the surface, may not look like one but don't give up on it so fast. Dig a little deeper and there are countless lessons to be learned. The beauty of this, is they directly relate to how I fly and the decisions I make.
I am, by nature, strong willed and sometimes referred to as "bull headed" by those who know and love me. When I set my mind on something I have a tendency to put my blinders on, acquire radar lock on the target and get tunnel vision. This allows me to ignore the chatter of everyone around me saying it can't, or shouldn't, be done. Now, before you make any snap judgments, this isn't always a negative trait to have, in fact it has been the backbone of many of my life's greatest accomplishments. I don't intend to eliminate this trait, because I am rather fond of it, but I also know it needs to be kept in check.
I have learned, through self awareness and life experience to not only be aware of this trait, but also know when it is about to get me into trouble. I make a conscious effort these days to step back and separate myself from the emotion of a decision and make an objective choice on how to proceed.
That's what I did today when I called off the wing mounting, postponing it until later. Two people (Sean and Jim) whom I both respect questioned me this week, "are you sure you are ready to mount the wings?". I already had my nagging doubts, but felt pressure to stay the course. My friends had already made plans to come help me, surely I couldn't let them down?
When the first person asked, I brushed it aside and said, "sure, I will be ready"...but I knew in the back of my mind I was lying to myself. Remember, I was still locked on target...my tunnel vision was fully intact thank you very much, this was just chatter. When the second person asked, that's when it struck me. Not immediately, mind you. Initially, I was ready to also brush aside this questioning just like the first...and then it finally dawned on me, they are both right, snap out of it! Like a pit bull, I had to unclench my jaw and relax to get the blood flowing to the brain again.
My hangar mate, Bill, put it very eloquently in his email response to me when I called it off, "As men, we are all condemned to a bit of tunnel vision and only the wise amongst
us can take a step back and reevaluate a plan we have already set in motion." That sums it up perfectly, although not sure I am all that wise...I'm wondering if he pilfered this quote from someone famous?? Just kidding Bill! ;)
How does this relate to decision making with our flying you ask? Can you see any parallels in my story to get-home-itis? If you've gone through pilot training, you should be familiar with this term. To refresh your memory, it is a psychological phenomenon described like this;
"Press-on-itis (or get-home-itis) is really the result of a decision-making error that involves continuing toward the destination (objective) despite a lack of readiness of the airplane or crew and the availability of reasonable lower-risk alternatives. Press-on-itis often occurs when there is an unsuitable environment such as bad weather at the destination. The pilot may continue on despite warnings from ATC or other crew members." [1]
Based on this definition, lets look at the scorecard: I had my mind locked on achieving the objective, there were reasonable lower-risk alternatives available, add in some internal and external pressure, lack of readiness and ignoring warnings from 'crew members' for good measure. Its a classic example of how our thinking can become clouded and dangerous. Beware of this when you make decisions with your aircraft or in life, its all too easy to get into this mindset and not even realize it, ignoring the 'chatter' telling you to turn around.
Of course, my particular decision wasn't life threatening, launching into adverse weather in your aircraft is. Thankfully I was aware of my thought pattern and terminated my course of action after listening to my 'crew' (CRM)...I broke the string of bad decisions. This is good practice for when decisions will take on added importance. Decision making, like any skill, can and should be practiced to become good at it.
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