Centered Within

The mind of the pilot is centered within you. There can be no reliance on props or tricks when fully flying. Of course we fly the wing, by the book, using crew resource management—but you are pilot-in-command centered in the sky.

When you decide to go flying, make flying the center of the world. It's been said that pilots are guys who talk about women when they are flying airplanes, and talk about airplanes when they are with women. That may be true for some. But not for pilots who wish to master inner airmanship. We must focus.

We've known what attention is for a long time. The founding father of American psychology, William James, had this to say about it, "Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought . . . It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatter-brained state." (James, 1890.)

When you are flying, cut through everything else and focus on the flying. Now don't get me wrong, I am not one of those nerds who talks only about the systems manual. On airline overnights I do enjoy going out sometimes. As an example, I remember shortly after 9/11 being on the Caribbean island of nt Maartin, where possibly I purchased one or two or five rounds of Goldschlager liquor shots too many, liquor that later caused my first officer to throw-up on a lap dancer. I have lots of great times on trips without thinking about flying. But the next day, when it's time to go flying, I try to center myself on the checklist. In the sea of air, within the up and down and left and right, I center.

I thought the expression 'green at the gills' was just some old goofy saying. But the poor first officer actually looked green, his face really was starting to match some of the turquoise shades of the Caribbean Sea. The jumpseater wanted to talk about the big party last night, when not searching for topless ladies sunning themselves on the beach. The view of the rocky island from the Maho beach end of the runway was spectacular. But this was the time to center. This is the time to focus. A mistake here will lead to disaster. So I discuss our method for setting max power at brake release, brief the departure past the steeply rising terrain, review engine-out procedures around said terrain, note options regards emergency return to airport at max gross weight, remember the non-radar ATC departure procedures, and a few other items. I am prepared for flight. No one else can do this for me but me. It's the quiet calm of the professional who is preparing for battle. I'm expecting a peaceful look at the beautiful blues of Simpson Bay. But ready nonetheless for an engine to explode and all hell to break loose.

This should not be hard. When eating breakfast, taste every oat. When paying taxes, every penny counts. When flying, just be flying. I would do a preflight, and then Sam would ask me what the oil level was and what color was that oil. Did I open my eyes? Did I notice? Did I center on the moment and focus on the preflight?

The way to get better at focusing is to let everything else fall away, and make the total effort to be present in what you are doing. At my current airline, each plane has a different name painted on the nose and there are several paint schemes on the tails. It is amazing, when you are just doing the motions of a preflight, when maybe your mind is elsewhere, that you can check for doors and leaks and brake condition and tire tread wear and on and on—but have no idea of the name of the plane or the paint scheme. Must notice more. Must center on the moment.

Various experts place the blame for 70% to 80% of aviation accidents on pilot error. Rather than the wing falling off, the pilot drives the plane into the hill five miles short of the runway. But since visionaries like RAF pilot David Beaty noticed this years ago during WWII, the percentage has stayed about the same. We have had huge leaps of understand in ergonomics, human factors, and crew resource management (CRM) but still accidents happen. Why?

When a great safety device is invented and added to, say, automobiles, great declines in accident rates are predicted. And for a while accidents involving whatever failure mode involved do indeed go down. Unfortunately, soon after that the total accident rate creeps up again. This is based on a zoological concept known as the risk compensation effect. It is thought that the driver, now feeling safer, starts to rely on the device and ends up driving with about the same risk. Anti-lock brakes (ABS, first invented for airplanes) are great but now I can drive a little faster in the rain. All-wheel-drive is awesome, because now I can still drive to the movies when it is snowing an inch an hour. The most effective way to reduce the real accident record is to educate the driver in real risk management. And for the driver to put the education into practice everyday.

We can not rely on the stall warning system. The autopilot should not be a crutch. CRM will not help out if nobody in the cockpit can hand fly the crippled airplane home. When you strap an airplane on, you assume the duties and responsibilities of the pilot in command. Be ready. This is the time to let the wind noise blow outside, and for quiet calm to reign inside.

You are one with the aircraft. Which sounds so much like a cliché that I hesitate to even write it down. But it is true and it is amazing. NASA test pilot Edward T. Schneider, who flew research variants of the F-8, F-14, F-15, F-18, F-104 and SR-71 as well as 80 other aircraft types, said in an interview: "When I'm in the airplane and I'm on and I know why I'm having a good day, a really good day . . . I'm literally one with that airplane, I have the feeling that I can do anything with that airplane that physics says you can do . . . that's more than just operating, that's getting in there and joining with it." (Schneider, 1998). Joining with a machine then performing at the limits, what a wonderful world we enjoy. Indy car racer Johnny Parsons knows the sensation:

"And that's what it's all about. Trying to get the car to feel like a part of your body. An extension. I get my mind into part of the machinery. And get it to be—like the tires are made of rubber, sure, but when things are right, you can feel the tires in your nerve ends. And when you take a car down into the corner as deep as it'll go and you know it's on the ragged edge, it's just like a shot in the arm. It's such a gratifying feeling that you've taken a piece of machinery and kind of glued yourself to it."

Former USAF fighter pilot turned aerobatic champion Mike Mangold now flies in the Red Bull Air Races. He says of flying at the limits, "You're really alive, but you're also pretty doggone focused down there."

You can glue yourself to an airplane. It takes time, but with lots of study and practice and getting close and letting go, you and the airplane start to blend and then it is time to really fly. One with the wing. This may all sound sentimentally silly and emotionally weak, but let me share what former US Marine aircraft mechanic Story Musgrave thinks about the T-38 supersonic trainer. For those that do not know him, this legendary five-time astronaut who fixed the Hubble space telescope has degrees in mathematics, medicine, chemistry, physiology and literature. He has flown 18,000 hours in something like 160 types of aircraft, including 8,000 hours in the Northrop T-38:

"I have kissed this airplane. I know they are not sentient beings, but listen to the emotions of your mind and body. Communication with machines should not only be in abstract terms. . . .  Emotional relationships with inanimate objects is understandable to me, I place my life under its metal skin."

Another master pilot—one who was awarded the Flight Safety Foundation Admiral Luis de Florez Flight Safety Award—is Warren VanderBurgh. He was the driving force behind the Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program (AAMP) researched and developed at American Airlines. The AAMP takes acrobatic and air combat maneuvering knowledge and applies it to air transport aircraft experiencing upsets away from normal attitudes and airspeeds. It's traditional stick and rudder meets fighter pilot aerodynamics meets heavy airliners. It's a great course. (If you've not had the pleasure, maybe a day of professional upset training and aerobatics should be in your future.)

Towards the end of the course captain VanderBurgh talks about automation dependency. While it is appropriate during uneventful cruise flight to have the FMS commanding the autopilot (indeed it is required in RVSM airspace) while the pilots are eating dinner, when close to the ground or handing any abnormality one pilot should very much be 'flying the plane.' It is banged into the heads of professional pilots. Fly The Plane. Sam said it a lot. Fly The Plane. One pilot works the problem, talks to ATC, talks to the passengers, whatever. And one pilot flies the plane. If you are alone, fly the plane first, and work the problem in manageable time bites.

Failure to follow this cardinal rule leads to accidents like the wide-body L-1011 that crashed into the Florida everglades killing ninety-eight people. All three cockpit crewmembers—including the 30,000 hour captain—were working hard, but all attention was focused on a burnt-out landing-gear light while the autopilot was left to slowly descend them down into the ground. You must stay centered in the cockpit. You must, whatever happens, fly the plane first.

Right after takeoff is not the time to turn on the autopilot and take your hands off the controls and think about what's on television tonight. On an approach you should intimately know what the  flight path is relative to the power setting and the position of the flight controls. When automation takes an unexpected turn, instead of looking at the FMS and saying, "what's it doing now," click off the autothrottles. Click off the autopilot. Then as you safely put the plane back into the desired flight path, say, "why did it do that." Stay centered. Fly the plane first.

Captain Vanderburgh tells his airline pilot students that, "the pilot flying should remain as one with the aircraft in any low altitude maneuvering environment." He gets some snickers and groans from the pilot audience when he says 'as one,' but I think he is right. Being one with the plane is not sitting cross-legged in the flight deck reciting chants—it is hands on the pulse of the aircraft. Flying the plane first.

I've quoted a lot of expert pilots here, but it is important to note that the aircraft can't read your resume. It just knows what you do. The good news is that a five-hour fifteen year-old glider student can fly a better approach than her 15,000 hour fifty year-old instructor. The bad news is that even the best can lose situational awareness. Captain Jacob van Zanten was KLM's chief 747 instructor pilot, a well-respected safety advocate and semi-celebrity. His handsome face was seen on KLM's magazine ad. He was well-known at international safety meetings.

When  KLM executives first got word of a B-747 crash in the Canary Islands, they tried to contact van Zanten in hopes of sending him to Tenerife to aid the investigation team. They could not reach him. For the hands pushing on the four throttles that sealed the fate of almost 600 people in the worst aviation accident in human history were Jacob's. He was on the cover of KLM's inflight magazine that month, but the big airliner didn't care. Captain Jacob van Zanten made some human mistakes and paid for them with his life. Worry not about hours in the logbook, but worry about today's flight right now.

Tim Gallway, who wrote many classics like The Inner Game of Golf, The Inner Game of Golf and The Inner Game of Work says that, "If there is one thing that excellence in sports and excellence in work/life have in common, it can be summed up in a single phrase: focus of attention. Focus is the quintessential component of superior performance in every activity, no matter what the level of skill or age of the performer."

Sam told me that the mind can not be distracted without its own complicity. You are there when it bounces around, and away. When I said I had tried to focus fully on flying, and that it was hard, that it only worked for a short while, Sam asked where the oil temperature needle normally lies after take-off. I did not know. He asked where the horizon cuts the windshield in cruise. I could not express it. The tennis pro repeats the phrase that you have to keep your eye on the ball. The master tennis instructor asks you to notice the seam of the ball every time it comes flying over the net. Sam had me tell him exactly where the horizon was. It is a little different with weight and balance and power. Notice the big changes with climb and descent, notice the small changes with fuel burn and changes in humidity.

What else helps in finding the center? First try to remove all the things that can pull you away. All the conscious activity at higher and inner brain levels depends intimately on physiological influences such as emotional arousal, mood, fatigue, stress, and the effects of foods, stimulants, and intoxicants. Get some sleep. Sam said it is hard to soar with the eagles if you partied with the owls. If you are experiencing stress, try to mentally lay it aside while you fly. It will be there waiting on the ground when you land. Eat right, carry snacks.

World gliding champion Brian Speckley once noted, "Unless you can relax you can't make the right decisions. I noticed over the years that most of the guys who won didn't get upset about anything and they were mostly fairly relaxed. I thought this obviously is very important. I put a lot of effort into being relaxed."

It is clear that emotional states such as fear, anger or extreme elation make it more difficult to think clearly and creatively, to find a calm center. Lay them down, disconnect them if you can, as there is no room in the cockpit for them. Cry later. Enjoy the peace and power of flight without being scared or high or mad as hell. If you can't keep them out the cockpit, then take care of these problems on the ground. The flying can wait. I remember getting the "you're hired" phone call from the head of pilot recruitment at my airline. It was my dream job, somehow they picked me while having 10,000 active applications on file. I was grinning from ear-to-ear. I was literally unable to stop myself from dancing. But I was driving to work at American Eagle, and had to go captain a 50-seat regional jet from Chicago to somewhere in Oklahoma (I think, I can't remember real well, it's all an ecstatic blur). I had to do my best to forget the dream job, and all the changes about to happen in my life, and center on flying. It was hard. I was not as safe as I should have been. If the external forces are too strong, you will not be able to experience inner art.

Another aspect of being centered in the cockpit is the ability to let go of your errors. We can not be here now doing the right thing if we are thinking about the mistake from five minutes ago. No flight is perfect, and we learn from our mistakes, but there are times we must let it go. Some sports psychologists teach athletes to 'park it' somewhere and get back in the game. Wipe it off onto the bat and swing again. As pilots we must remember this during checkrides. It is done. Park it. Let it go. Move on.

It is a lot of work to perform at checkride intensity levels all the time. It can not be sustained. And forcing effort will wear anybody out. False effort. Lots of trying. But doing is easy. You are centered in the cockpit, and so you do the checklist. You just do it. Wu-wei is the Taoist word for the power of positive not-thinking. Wu-wei is the way of water, or for us maybe it is the way of the wind. It is not the absence of action, but the absence of false outside directed action. Another idea I've learnt is Wabi, which means spare, simple and functional. It connotes a transcendence of fad and fashion. The sprit of wabi flows though all the Zen arts and all the best cockpits. There is enough to do in a cockpit that we don't need to do anything else, so stay centered, fly the plane. Wu-wei and wabi will soon follow.

Sam wrote me one winter that you can't separate focus from doing your best. Longterm or short term, a strong focus is indelibly woven into what it means to face and conquer adversity, to overcome setbacks. Focus helps you discover the problems, and find the solutions.

The image Zen teachers like here is the mirror. You should not be distorting the image of the world, adding your own motions. But silently, instantly, and completely reflecting the world. Center yourself in the cockpit, in the universe. Then reflect in your actions any change in the weather, or any mechanical malfunction. You do not have to dwell on fears or consequences for your ego. Whether you are ten feet off your altitude or you have to shut down an engine, you reflect the center of the situation and move with right action. And don't let worrying about what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Let the old mistakes go, don't dream of the next neat airplane, but instead fly now. We live at a tiny bright sliver, a shiny moving target squeezed between two eternities, the past and the future. Center here. With all the up and down, left and right, yin and yang, ocean of air, world of thoughts—you are flowing like the wind, pilot-in-command, centered. Flying the plane.

A guy at the airport shared his favorite Sam memory with me as we talked about centering in the cockpit. He remembered that Sam said some of the thrill and the contentment of being a pilot was being safe in an unsafe place.

Circumstances in the atmosphere combine to kill the wishful or the distracted.

— William Langwiesche

Life is what happens to us while we are planning other things.

— John Lennon

Things don't change, you change your way of looking.

— Carlos Castaneda

Zen is not about monks meditating as much as it is about taking action, making decisive moves in the present. There's a certain impatience about Zen, an unwillingness to get lost in meandering arguments, a desire to cut quickly to the essential, or to 'get to the bottom line.'

— Chuck Norris

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

— Duke Ellington

A thousand clouds among a myriad streams and in their midst a person at ease. By day he wanders through the dark green hills, at night goes home to sleep beneath the cliffs. Swiftly the changing seasons pass him by, tranquil, undefiled, no earthly ties. Such pleasures! —and on what do they rely? On a quiet calm, like autumn river water.

— Hanshan

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

— Chuang Tzu

People always ask, 'Were you afraid?' I've been up four times, and each time I went, I was a little more aware of what I was risking. But that's before the launch. Once I'm strapped in, it's total peace, a piece of cake. It's just like being in the simulator. You know what's going to come.

— Bob Cabana

Think of Zen, of the Void, of Good and Evil, and you are bound hand and foot. Think only and entirely and completely of what you are doing at the moment and you are free as a bird.

— R. H. Blyth

You completely ignore everything and just concentrate. You forget about the whole world and you just . . . are part of the car and the track. . . . It's a very special feeling. You're completely out of this world. There is nothing like it.

— Jochen Rindt

Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

— Albert Einstein

This is what intelligence is; paying attention to the right things.

— Edward T. Hall

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are. What we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.

— Henry Parry Liddon

We hold our fire, trying to sort bandits from friendlies. Finally, a bandit reveals himself by firing at me. My flight lead returns fire. A sparkling flash in the night sky and we know his missile hit the mark. With technique and training transcended, Situational Awareness blossoms and correct action is attained.

— Mark J. Williams

When you’re riding, only the race in which you’re riding is important.

— Bill Shoemaker

Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe. What are three score years and ten hurriedly and coarsely lived compared to moments of divine leisure in which your life is coincident with the life of the universe?

— Henry David Thoreau

I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.

— Igor Stravinsky

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold onto.

— Tao Te Ching

The heart of seamanship is safety consciousness. It begins by going beyond safety 'information' to a due diligence in respects, on the part of all hands, to make a vessel seaworthy before she goes to sea. . . . The great boathandler who uses the minimum of power to get the job done and keeps his options open as much as possible adds measurable to the safety of the vessel.

— Captain Jay Bolton

The fool wanders, a wise man travels.

—Thomas Fuller

You can fly an airplane by the numbers, pushing and pulling at the appropriate time, which will very definitely get you into the air and where you are going. Or you can become a real pilot and develop a feel for the airplane which makes you part of it. Those who seem one with the airplane do so primarily because their senses are connected to it. They are feeling and hearing it, as well as seeing it.

— Budd Davisson

A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.

— Alistair Cooke

Mental bearing, not skill, is the sign of a matured Samurai. A Samurai therefore should neither be pompous nor arrogant.

— Tsukahara Bokuden

You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Zen practice in the midst of activity is superior to that pursued within tranquility.

— Hakuin

When you get in an airplane . . . you go into a different mental state. You close out the rest of the world. What you feel is the immediate flight, the immediate maneuver. And you have total concentration, which is the key to all this flying.

— Roy 'Butch' Voris

Inside yourself or outside, you never have to change what you see, only the way you see it.

— Thaddeus Golas

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