Something harder than flying.

RTH and I went on a little jaunt this weekend. Just a little flight to keep RTH in currency. It sparked off an interesting discussion though, about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour from each other whilst flying.

Understand that when RTH started flying, he was the captain, in control of the plane, in charge of the flight. What he said went. And I didn’t know any better to think otherwise.

Now though, I’m starting to catch up with him in terms of ability and in some areas, experience. The lines have become a little bit blurred.

RTH and I have been married for a while, and have every intention of staying that way, so we are smart enough to realise that as this situation develops it has the potential to cause friction and we’d rather that didn’t happen.

The first stage is recognising the potential for conflict. Well we’ve figured that one out. Interestingly I was always worried that RTH wouldn’t be comfortable flying with me because of his control issues. For various reasons that I’ll go into in another post, I’m slightly reassured about that now. I’d never stopped to consider that I might develop into a “backseat flyer” but I have caught myself heading that way on occasion.

I think the key to harmonious cockpit relationships is recognising the fundamental difference in two issues. Style vs Safety. If you are about to comment or do something about an aspect of a flight you need to ask yourself, is this a style thing or a safety concern. Safety you should speak up, style you should probably keep your mouth shut (at least in that moment)

A couple of examples spring to mind: Me saying to RTH “Sweetie did you just skip an entire section of the checklist?” (He had) is perfectly acceptable. His reply: “DOH! Yes, thanks for spotting that”

Me thinking “Hmm, I’d normally have dropped 10 degrees of flap on approach to landing by now” is a style thing and not a flight safety issue and therefore I should keep my mouth shut.

Instead it makes for an interesting conversation post flight. Apparently pilot pillow talk consists of “so do you prefer to crab or slip on final”!

I’m hoping that by recognising the fundamental difference between the two that RTH and I maintain a healthy environment when we are together but I am learning that there is actually something harder than flying a plane.

Not flying it.

Better

Of course my aim in all this is to become a better pilot. Let’s face it, it shouldn’t be hard to become a better pilot when I’m barely one at the moment.

Recently though I’ve discovered that not only do I need to be a better pilot, I need to work on becoming a better passenger, especially when RTH is flying. I’m really conscious of the fact that I do get anxious up there sometimes, and whilst that’s kind of OK when I’m with Bob, it really isn’t that fair on RTH.

Now that I can cope with the bumps and jolts of mild to moderate turbulence, I needed to figure out what it is that causes me anxiety, in order to work on eliminating it. I don’t wanna stress RTH out, managing passengers is something I’m starting to become aware of.  From a pilot’s perspective, it brings its own challenges. I don’t want to add to them.

I rapidly realised that one thing that stresses me out, is what to do with my hands. This may sound silly but I worry about what to do with my hands when I’m a passenger. I want to make sure I don’t inadvertently grab hold of the yoke or anything stupid. Added to this is the fact that where you would normally rest your hands along the door frame, is exactly the point where the handle for the door release sits. I have visions of me opening the door mid-flight….. not good.

For your average person this wouldn’t be an issue but I don’t have hands that stay still. I need to be constantly doing something with them. If I’m watching TV or reading something at my desk then I’m fiddling with something. I have countless bits of ribbon or elastic or twist ties lying around my home that I mess with, all the time. At work I have a lump of sticky tack that I squeeze and mold while I’m working. I have to be careful in the winter, it leaches the moisture out of my hands and the skin cracks.

So I decided to solve the problem fairly easily. The last time I flew with RTH , I just put one of my fiddly bits of elastic in my hoodie pocket and happily occupied my hands that way.

It helped. A lot actually.

Seems silly but if it makes me a better passenger, then so be it. 

My pledge as a student.

Today’s flight was pretty much a carbon copy of what we had planned to do last lesson. Notice I say planned. Unfortunately we had to cut my last flight short due to my unhappy desire to revisit my previous meal.

I don’t know whether it was the bumpy conditions, the time spent under the hood, a slightly dicey stomach in general or any combination of the above but I did not feel good.  I tried taking a few deep breaths but midway through an attempt at a forced approach I had to admit to Bob that it wasn’t going to happen. I spent a good few minutes with my face pressed into the cool air vent while Bob reassured me that we’d take it nice and gently back to City.

Eventually I recovered enough to land the plane before expelling the offending stomach contents on the apron.

For today’s lesson I made sure that I’d eaten properly and was adequately hydrated beforehand. I did my stint under the hood and gladly removed it.

“How you doing?” Bob enquired.

I reassured him that I was fine. We carried on, some power on stalls.

“Are you feeling alright?” Bob asked.

Again, I was doing fine. This carried on every couple of manoeuvres. I tried not to let Bob’s over anxious concern bother me.

He’s not in a great position. He needs to check I’m OK without planting the idea in my head that I should be feeling ill. He needs to make sure that I feel comfortable telling him that I’m not doing ok without making a big deal of it. At the same time he doesn’t want to embarrass me.

It has the potential to be a no win situation really. Luckily for him, Bob’s dealing with a student who doesn’t embarrass easily and who isn’t shy in coming forward.

So that we don’t have to broach the subject again, here is my pledge as a student pilot…

… I do solemnly swear that I, WMAP, will inform my instructor at the first signs of impending nausea, and will take the appropriate avoiding action before it becomes an imminent issue.

I was fine this lesson though, must have just been a transient thing.

Easy decision.

As I mentioned Bob is away this weekend and had arranged for someone else to sign me out. He’d wrote his usual epic essay in my PTR outlining what I was authorised to do and arranged for one of the other instructors to brief me beforehand.

Bob had all the bases covered, except the damn weather of course. Now this is a problem, the weather has been so variable lately sometimes with the METAR/TAF not exactly telling the entire story either. Take last lesson for example, the winds were decidedly on the marginal side, not just strength but direction as well. Last lesson I elected not to go solo, but if faced with the same choice again I’d probably give it a go. Bob was quite complementary about my crosswind landing.

From Bob’s point of view though, the unknown weather is slightly problematic. He’s not around to look out the window and oversee my decision. He has to trust my judgement and another instructors.

The day before I got a text confirming the time and a gentle reminder of all the sources of information available to me in order to make a decision.

Turns out I didn’t really need any of them. I set the alarm, woke up and looked out of the window. Mist was cutting visibility down to the next building on the block. Hmm, not a great start. Without bothering to get out of bed, I reach for my phone. METAR looks crap, ditto for the TAF.

RTH makes an enquiring grunt from somewhere in the midst of the duvet. “Buttonville is reporting ceilings at 1200ft” I say.

“What’s the prediction for when you take off?” asks RTH

“800” I reply gloomily.

So that is an easy decision. No point even phoning flight services. The only decision I have to make now is when to call the flight school. I want to give the other instructor plenty of notice but don’t want to call too early and risk no one being there to pick up.

Eventually I call two hours before my flight. I speak to dispatch, “Hey J, it’s WMAP. I’ve got a flight at 10, I’m cancelling due to weather.”

We have a brief chat to confirm who needs to be informed (not Bob this time!) and he assures me he’ll make the arrangements.

Immediately I feel vindicated, J’s our resident weather expert. He’s also a lot less conservative than me. If he isn’t batting an eyelid that I’m cancelling then I’ve made the right choice. This is also confirmed by the fact that I don’t see a single light aircraft take off that morning.

I like weather decisions that can be made from the comfort of your bed! 

I don’t get it

I honestly don’t get some people and their attitudes. I mean don’t get me wrong I’m no paragon of virtue myself but I’d like to think that I have a reasonable sense of responsibility, no more or less than the average person.

I assumed that pretty much everyone was similar in attitude, especially people who want to learn to fly. I mean this isn’t a cheap hobby, you’d think that anyone turning up in the hanger was reasonably well prepared and motivated.

It doesn’t seem to be the case though. Bob has one student who is regularly late and whom I suspect consistently turns up less than fully prepared (I infer this myself, Bob is far too professional to discuss another student’s progress with me).

I can’t abide lateness, especially habitual lateness. I mean occasionally Bob’ll miss the ferry and end up on the one after he intended but he’s never late for our flights. In return he knows that I’ll be there stupidly early, have settled my stuff into the plane, completed my walkround and have notes prepped for the planned flight. I can’t imagine things being any other way.

I view lateness as disrespectful; basically you are saying that your time is worth more than the person’s you are wasting. I genuinely believe that the most valuable commodity Bob has to give to me is his time.  I value every minute of it. Plus I like to be as relaxed as possible before a flight. Getting there early means I don't feel rushed or stressed.

It’s not just lateness though, I regularly see students who seem less than enthusiastic to be there. A couple of weeks ago I saw a student with one of the younger instructors, they were doing a fantastic impression of a truculent teenager being dragged around against their will (the student not the instructor!). They seemed less than enthusiastic about been walked through their walkround.

A little later on they appeared to be being forced to stand in front of the computer and interpret the latest METARS and TAFS. I have no idea how far along in their training this student is and I know I struggled (still do) with Met. in general but it is a necessary evil. There's more to flying than just jumping in the plane.

But I also know the instructor in question. I know his background. And I know that if he tries to impart some tricks and tips about interpreting and predicting weather, you should listen.

I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with some people. 

Next time…

I’ve kind of gotten over the weirdness of solo flights where I brief with Bob and then just grab the keys and go flying. For me this was one of the biggest “wow” factors when I first started doing it.

To get my head around the concept that I could just sign out a plane with my instructor saying “you’ve got it for two hours,” before turning around and dealing with his next student, was mind blowing.

Next lesson has the potential to be even weirder, Bob’s away for the weekend (I hope for some much needed rest and relaxation) but I’ll still be in solo currency.

The plan is for us to make contact at some point closer to the weekend to see what the weather looks like. If it seems reasonable then he’ll call the school, make the booking and get someone else to sign me out.

I’ll have gone from Bob not being in the plane with me, to him not being in the same country as me!

He’s noted in my PTR what I’m authorised to do, we’ve briefed on what I need to do and at the end of the day Bob trusts me (quite rightly) not to go beyond what we’ve agreed.

It’s a little bit flattering that he trusts me enough to do this. I have no intention of giving him a reason not to. 

Fortunate one

I got a little angry when I read this news story today. Basically some arsehole guy decided to take issue with the fact that there was a woman daring to fly the plane he was on. He even left her a nice note explaining this. Other sources claim that he was questioning the cabin crew about her qualifications as well.

I find it hard to believe that people with attitudes like this still exist to be honest. I honestly can’t fathom how these attitudes persist in Canada in this day and age. It’s kind of unfortunate timing as well seeing as we are into “women in aviation week”

I’ve questioned the need for events like these before, my point possibly being that I didn’t feel that there was any discrimination to be fought anymore. Obviously I’m wrong.  I forget sometimes that I’ve had a privileged upbringing in many ways. No I didn’t come from a wealthy background with rich parents and so forth but I was blessed with parents who supported me in whatever I wanted to do. No “girls don’t do science” crap coming from them for sure. I had parents who encouraged me to explore what was out there, to decide what interested me, with no influences either way. They let me try things, figure out what worked for me with no judgement or preconceived ideas.

Apparently not everyone has that luxury. I don’t know if the muppet who wrote that note has kids. If he does I feel sorry for them. His daughters might never know that a whole world of science and engineering is open to them; they’ll never experience the beauty of an elegant scientific theory or the satisfaction of crafting something with their own hands. To see an engine or piece of machinery in action and say “I had a hand in the creation of that.”

Similarly if he has sons then I suspect a whole range of “traditionally female” careers are probably closed to them right now.

I was fortunate in that the one thing my parents did insist on was a decent education, even thought I suspect it caused a not insignificant financial burden. My education was how I ended up here, both in location and achievements.

It gave me virtually unlimited choices and that is the most powerful thing that you can give anyone.