Aviator90 Episode 21

Man: [0:31] Welcome to another episode of Aviator90 from Angle of
Attack. This is episode 21. Now the next five episodes we’re going
to be talking about some human factors or some more psychological
things about aviating and about what you can do as a virtual pilot
to better navigate the virtual skies.
[0:50] This episode we’re going to be talking about decision
making. Decision making for a pilot is perhaps one of the most
important things because there is no one else with you in the
cockpit that can make decisions for you. Air traffic control or
your instructors will never make those decisions for you. So it’s
up to you to make decisions in your cockpit or your flight deck.

[1:19] Now as the pilot, speaking along those lines, you are the
pilot in command of your aircraft. That means that you are solely
responsible for the safe operation for yourself and for your
passengers and also you don’t want to invade your other people
around you, even if it’s in the virtual skies. You don’t
necessarily want to run into other aircraft on purpose or make
their fun experience less enjoyable because you are goofing around
or doing something stupid.

[1:54] So to a certain extent decision making is limited within
virtual aviation. It’s not too limited because you can take it as
far as you want. You can make it as real as you want,but you can
also completely toss it aside, or you can completely toss safety
aside and there aren’t any negative aspects to it as far as harming
people or harming other property or something, or even yourself.

[2:28] So, if you get up to 10, 000 feet, or even 1, 000 feet above
the ground, and you decide you want to cut the engine, cut the
mixture, then there are no consequences for that for you. You can
hit a grove of trees and you’ll be fine.

[2:47] But, if you like to take your virtual aviating experience to
a greater level, and you like to do things realistically, then you
can act as a real pilot acts.

[2:59] So, one of the major things for decision making is the go,
no go decision. So, based on weather, based on something wrong with
the aircraft, based on any number of circumstances, those weather
and aircraft being some of the major things that will keep you from
going somewhere, it is solely up to you as the pilot to make the
go, no go decision. So, do I go into the weather when there’s
icing? Do I take off with a landing light that’s not working or
something like that?

[3:37] Now, there are legal consequences to those sorts of things
in real life, but within Flight Simulator you’ve got to ask
yourself do I want to waste my time with this flight by going up
and just ending up crashing into the ground anyway, or do I want to
act safely and do I want to act as a real pilot would act?

[3:57] Do I want to go through that decision making process where I
evaluate what’s going on with the aircraft and my surroundings and
what’s going on at the destination, what’s going on in between me
and the destination?

[4:09] And, those things are very important as a pilot. So,
decision making is kind of what you make of it. You can be a bad
decision maker, but what you’ve got to realize is that there are
consequences for every action you take. There are often greater
negative consequences for actions, or you can say what’s a
different course of action I could take here that would lead to
less consequences and therefore safer operation of the aircraft?”

[4:46] Let’s think of an example. Say you’re headed into an area
where it’s snowing or raining heavily or the weather’s just iffy.
Instead of push it, instead of push to get there, you can say, “You
know what? I’m going to go to this airport. Yes its 50 miles to the
south, but I can wait it out there for a few hours and the storm
will then pass and then I can go and get there.”

[5:13] Now that brings us to another point which really, really
pushes this decision making to the brink for pilots and even
virtual aviators. That is something we call “getthereitis”. It’s
almost like a disease, “getthereitis.” What “getthereitis” is, is
it’s the need or want to be somewhere no matter what. I need to get
there for dinner or I need to get there for this family event. I
need to get there before the storm comes in. Whatever it may be.

[5:55] That is probably the most major thing, at least for me as a
pilot that seems to test my resolve on decision making. So I watch
out for those things in my head thinking “You know is this really
smart? Am I just wanting to go into this situation? Am I being more
optimistic than I should be because I want to get there?” If the
answers yes, then generally I take a step back and say “Hey it’s
better safe than sorry.

[6:26] It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air
than in the air wishing you were on the ground.” You may have heard
that saying before.

[6:35] That’s a major thing. Because if you’re at the tail end of a
week trip, or if I’m at the end of the tail end of a week trip, and
I’m looking forward to get home and see my wife and see my family
and everything and just sleep in my own bed, then it becomes a very
tough decision process saying to myself, you know, this probably
isn’t the smartest thing and we actually need to stay another
night. And, we need to just wait out the storm.

[7:06] Or, sometimes it’s in the opposite direction. Sometimes you
look at the weather the next day and you say yes, this is going to
be there tomorrow, so unless we leave tonight, wow, the weather’s
good, wow, the winds are good, wow, this thing isn’t taking place,
then we can get there. Otherwise, we’re going to be staying here a
couple more days.

[7:28] And, I’ve been put in those situations before where I have
to make that decision. And, it’s up to me as a pilot to not only
say yes, we can go, but it’s up to me as a pilot to draw a line in
the sand and say we’re not going. We’re staying here. I’m sorry.
The consequences stink. We have to stay here another night. I know
we’ve been gone a week.

[7:52] But, you know what? It’s better to come home to your family
than not come home at all.

[7:58] So, that’s decision making. I mean, it’s like I said, what
you make of it and how you make that in virtual aviation is you
kind of investigate what goes on in the real world. You investigate
accidents and what the pilots could have done better. And, you can,
therefore, build your own safety kind of curriculum and your own
decision making skills. But, that comes with experience.

[8:26] Now, you want to start out as a pilot very conservative. You
want to be very careful. And then, as you gain more experience, you
can see the different situations, you can not necessarily know what
to expect because usually it’s not what you expect, but you have a
better idea of kind of the situation you’d put yourself in if you
went this direction or how it would be better if you went this
direction. So, experience is a big part of that.

[8:56] And, that’s about it for decision making. So, I thank you
for watching this episode of Aviator 90. And, next time we’re going
to be talking about situational awareness. So, where am I, what am
I doing, what’s happening next, and always being ahead of the
aircraft. So, I will see you in the next episode.

[9:14] Until next time, throttle on.

Transcription by CastingWords