Keeping your cool

This cycle of stress, stress management and therefore preparation and planning, has been a constant of late and is something I have been dealing with – even while writing this column. As I write this, I am just days away from competing in the final round of the 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Championship, and there are just two other pilots and me who could win it.

It’s a nervous time for our team; stressful. But I can recall my early RAAF training and lean on what I learned about stress management during that time. Back then, I worked out that when I was stressed before an exam or check ride, it was because I was projecting failure.

Back then, I started worrying about everything that could go wrong, or worrying that a question in the exam would be on something I could not answer. I then realised that if I could have an answer or response to anything I could think of, my stress levels dropped considerably.

From that I learned to look at things I could control and took ownership of those items. Then I considered things I could not control and came up with plans to work around those items. Examples of this in my early years would be checklists and procedures for items I could control by learning them and practising them over and over again.

Like all pilots, the weather was something I could not control. So, for every flight I would look at the effect weather would have on me, and I would have a plan in place for every contingency I could think of. It took a lot of effort, though it meant I embraced my flying rather than being scared of it.

The same now works with racing. In the weeks leading up to a race, I find that I get nervous. It prompts me to think about what it is I have to do in an upcoming race that is different to other races. I think about what made me successful at other races and how I need to change or adapt that for a new challenge.

Most of the time, I will have a new track, new wind and weather. My health will be different; my fatigue levels will be different. Our aircraft serviceability comes into my thoughts and, of course, how good our competition might be.

Out of all those thoughts, the first factor I cannot control is the competition. Whatever happens there is out of my hands. S, the answer to race week nerves is to forget what they are doing and put all my focus on the task for me and my team. If we can do that and put in a 100 per cent performance, it will be a good weekend. If we do that and still get beaten, congratulations to those who beat us.

If I am worried about the track, I start doing a few preliminary track assessments, and relieve that stress by establishing that it is just another track and that I can fly it. If I worry about the weather, which is something I can’t control, I look at what affects any wind will have on the track, and start planning around what I can expect when I race. Again, I reinforce to myself with my planning that it is a challenge I can overcome. I exercise if I am worried about my health, I talk to my technician Dave Finch if I am worried about the aircraft.

By the time I get to a race, I am practising the same thing over and over. All I have to do is fly one gate at a time as fast as possible. I need to come up with a great plan, learn it and practise it. Then I think of what might go wrong, come up with a plan how to recognise it, avoid it, or deal with it if not avoidable, then commit all of that to memory. Preparation and planning.

‘I need to come up with a great plan, learn it and practise it.’

Of course, you don’t have to be a race pilot to experience stress in aviation. In fact, I believe you should suffer a minor level of stress every time you commit to aviation, otherwise you are probably exposing yourself to complacency.

But more than a little stress can be detrimental to performance. Whether you are doing your first lesson, first solo, instrument rating, check ride or exams, I believe the above methods I use can assist in both reducing stress and increasing the enjoyment of what you are doing. In the end enjoyment is why we all got into this aviation thing in the first place, isn’t it? If you are constantly looking forward to it being over, you are probably not as prepared as you could be!

By the time you read this the World Championship for the Red Bull Air Race 2018 should be over, and you will know the result. Win or lose, we will have been a team that prepared and planned as best we could for the race. Even being able to write this column in my hotel room waiting to do the last race is a sign that I am super relaxed. Good luck in the preparation for your next flight, I hope you can strap in at your controls as relaxed and prepared as I am now.

Smoke on….