Human Factor (Danger in distraction)

For the weekend flyer, it’s the anticipation of the working week nearing an end when you’re looking forward to being back at an airstrip first thing Saturday morning, hanging out with friends with the same (sometimes obsessive) passions and interests.

And just like recalling the outcomes of beach or backyard cricket at Christmas time, the one thing you can guarantee is that the post-flying stories will flow well into the afternoon, evening, weeks and, if memorable enough, years to come. There is one thing many of us have in common: a passion that tends to take up too much of our time.

Restoring balance

My wife recently suggested I get back into a hobby to balance my work commitments. I pondered this for a few weeks with a new sense of purpose. She was right; it was time to make a well needed correction to my work-life balance.

On my way to a meeting with a senior manager, I noticed a sticker on the back of a car advertising gliding at Bunyan Airfield. Bunyan is a beautiful airstrip 10 minutes from the township of Cooma in NSW. Nestled in the foothills of the Binjura Nature Reserve, and from height providing clear views to the Snowy Mountains and Mount Kosciusko, it’s the home of the Canberra Gliding Club. It’s not too close to airspace and perfect for a busy mind requiring the removal of unnecessary distractions to manage other resources that deserve professional attention.

As I left that meeting I couldn’t stop thinking about gliding. That’s where I started my early flying career. It’s an environment that provides the opportunity to get right back to basics – no fancy glass cockpits that make you feel like you’re back in front of an iPhone; essentially just simple instruments (an airspeed and vertical speed indicator) and a control stick. After a couple of weeks the thought of Bunyan was still with me. The true flying bug was back!

I thought my wife would be excited to know I’d found a calling again, a hobby, a step back to something I’ve always loved. Yet her response when I mentioned gliding? She said: “That’s not a hobby, that’s flying. It’s work. Get a real hobby”. Sometimes even those closest to you just don’t understand what flows through your blood.

I know that passion may have eroded for some who may have lost their professional edge. Each flight is just another day in the office, over-played routines primarily motivated by a need to pay off the mortgage and other bills. It’s an all-too-sad reality for a small part of the aviation community and one that deserves attention in the context of the need to continue to operate effectively within a workplace that requires the highest professional standards.

This is the time of year to reflect on what we have and to re-focus our attention on the strengths of our aviation hobbies or careers. In my mind, even a not-so-great aviation job is better than being stuck in a call centre or corporate office. If you can allow yourself to truly be in a moment, to focus on something in the now, there is always something beautiful to see from the window of an aircraft. If the work right now is long hours for not so much pay, it’s still a stepping stone along the path to something better. And given the global shortage of pilots, there has never been a better time to be moving into this career.

Hopefully you all have an opportunity to relax as you transition from 2018 to 2019, although not always on Christmas Day as unfortunately it’s also very busy helping fly families to be with their loved ones. It’s also a time that can expose you to many distractions that need to be carefully managed. If there is one area to focus as part of a New Year’s Resolution, particularly given the impact of technology (smartphones etc.) it is to enhance performance, and manage distractions and their link to attentional focus.

‘This is the time of year to reflect on what we have.’

Distraction awareness

I’d like to recall a story that, in hindsight, is good for a laugh as the consequences were more embarrassing and a hit to the ego of a pilot rather than causing any injuries to personnel or damage to an aircraft. And just like the highs and lows from beach or backyard cricket (the four, the six, the top score, the dropped easy catch, the run-out), those stories tend to linger for many months. This one is likely to linger for a lifetime.

The story starts towards the end of a busy year in a large flight training school operating some advanced and higher-performance training aircraft. The year had been hectic with a large number of training courses and students; everyone was looking forward to some downtime to unwind over the Christmas/New Year period. It’s one of the reasons workplaces provide leave for extended periods of down-time, so employees can switch off and relax – essential for sustained performance. More about this in future articles on what the brain needs to optimise performance over the longer term.

The aircraft captain, let’s call him Matt, was a very experienced and senior flying instructor, renowned for being highly professional, disciplined and always focused on setting the best professional example for trainees. Matt, in his more senior position, had several competing roles: as the supervisor for a large course of flying trainees, a mentoring role to maximise positive outcomes aligned with their needs, and as a senior flying program scheduler required to deliver efficient and effective course outcomes on a daily basis while juggling different combinations of aircraft, instructors and students. His role was best described as ‘herding cats’ in trying to balance multiple needs.

For example, there’s always a ‘special needs’ instructor who  can’t fly in the morning but forgets to mention this prior to the next day’s program being finalised. That can have big implications. These late notice changes are exacerbated during the formation phase of the course, where changes to the pairing of two instructors and two students can cause a disruptive ripple effect throughout the rest of program.

Matt programed himself to fly in the first wave, normally allowing him to be focused purely on the flight with the many normal distractors of the day yet to unfold.

On this particular morning the sky was a little overcast with a few passing showers – the light was quite drab and grey. Matt felt good. He’d slept well and was on top of his game. It was a formation flight with two aircraft, each with senior instructors and students who had been performing well for this stage of the course. Although he had flown this type of scenario many times, he remained full of enthusiasm and passion with a sense of gratitude for his work for this organisation. Matt was really enjoying his senior role and at the time could not think of anywhere else he would prefer to be other than the bar on a Friday afternoon to regale the highs of the week with other aviators over a celebratory cold beer. Little did he know he was on a path to be the big news story of the week, and one that has stuck with him for many years!

Having completed a morning brief, where the entire organisation sat down in a large briefing room to preview the day’s program, the weather and any other things relevant for the day ahead, Matt was ready to go. He had completed the pre-flight brief with his student and was walking past the main operations room to sign the flight authorisation sheet. This is normally where Matt would switch on and focus only on the upcoming formation flight, removing and avoiding any unnecessary distractions. But on this morning there were some problems with the flying program, including some issues with the students from the course he was supervising.

Matt was approached by the chief flying instructor, let’s call him James, who had some questions regarding the program. Matt’s second-in-charge for programing was not available, which required Matt to focus on the issue involving several time-consuming changes.

Matt convinced himself he was good to go.’

Matt and his student were now running late and the other aircraft’s crew had already completed their pre-flight. At the same time, a student from Matt’s course required some assistance so Matt told his other student to head out to the aircraft and in the interest of saving time, suggested the student get the cockpit ready, while Matt would take care of the before-flight walk around.

With the issues resolved but now running quite late, Matt hurriedly made his way to get his safety equipment, all the time trying to clear his mind of competing thoughts. While trying to relax and stay focused on the flight, other thoughts kept creeping back into his head: “I’m running late, the other crew has been kept waiting, there are implications of the changes for the tomorrow’s program”.

There was even a moment when he considered whether he should even be flying that morning, given all the extraneous information he’s trying to sort out in his head. But, if he cancelled, three aircrew would be annoyed as they’re already out at the aircraft, and cancelled flights would further add to the burden for the re-programing to follow. The training course was already behind schedule.

Matt reminded himself of his experience, the fact that it was not a complex flight and convinced himself he was good to go. Without all the other distractions and self-induced pressure to complete this flight, that sixth sense, that ‘niggly’ thought in the back of his mind that things were not quite right, that passing thought “I should cancel”, is something he would normally listen to. It had protected him in the past but not this time.

Matt was trying not to hurry, yet another conscious thought on the top of a mind continuing to switch too much between one thought and another. He was thinking to himself “‘Stay focused, don’t rush the aircraft walk around and pre-flight”. He entered the cockpit and the student was ready to go.

To save some time Matt performed the initial cockpit pre and post start checks to help get back on schedule, as they were now running late enough to impact the next wave of the program. Feeling more comfortable, Matt was the lead aircraft for the formation and after checking the other aircraft was ready to go and gaining taxy clearance, it was time to check the brakes.

He powered up the engine to move the aircraft forward and just as he applied the brakes the nose of the aircraft yawed to the right. After applying a little more power and some further braking, the aircraft continued to yaw right. Matt thought, “Wow, after many hours this is the first time I’ve experienced a brake failure”, which requires the aircraft to be shut-down. At the same time another person has started waving their arms to tell him to shut down the aircraft. From inside the cockpit, Matt thought “they look a little frantic” over what was essentially a relatively simple problem.

As Matt exited the aircraft, the real outcome dawned on him. The right wing was still attached to a tie down strap. He was gutted and extremely embarrassed – how could he have missed something that in hindsight should be so obvious? He walked straight past the wing and the tie-down, looking but not actually seeing. And now he had more paperwork to complete – a safety occurrence report!

So what happened? Matt had too much on his mind; too many distractions that were eating into his cognitive resources and attentional focus. Matt’s normal pre-flight walk around involved a well-rehearsed, subconscious habit pattern. In this case and just prior to getting into the aircraft, his habit was to stop at the front of the aircraft and to squat down, performing one final and secondary check that the aircraft chocks and tie-downs were removed and that there were no obvious leaks from underneath the aircraft. A final check prior to stepping into the aircraft.

What’s even worse is that his student would normally perform the same checks with the walk-around duplicated by Matt. His direction to his student to get straight into the cockpit further removed essential risk controls that would normally offer enhanced protection from these types of outcomes, particularly when confronted with the additional pressure of running late.

On this day, in his haste, with a mind full of unnecessary distractions, his habit pattern broke down. Even worse, he walked around the right-hand wing and left a rope tied to the aircraft.

This is no different to a simple scenario you may have experienced at home: you’ve opened the fridge and you’re looking for the jam. It’s not there so you call out to your partner, housemate, or a parent, “Where’s the jam?” And the response: “It’s on the shelf right in front of you”. You change your attentional focus and sure enough you can now see what in hindsight is obvious – prior to this you’ve been looking but not seeing!

‘The ‘Matty tie-down’ story is still told to this day.’

So poor Matt was the feature story at the bar at the end of that week. The ‘Matty Tie-Down’ story is still told to this day by those that were there. It cost Matt several beers and a pretty big hit to his professional pride and ego. Although initially resulting in much laughter and humour at the bar at the end of that week, it did help enhance the performance of others. Matt’s professional and disciplined reputation was well respected, and the majority of instructors and trainees thought that if this could happen to Matt, it could happen to any of them.

We even made a training video themed to the song titled Loser by Beck with the lyrics “Soy un perdador, I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me”… timed at the same moment the video shows the nose wheel yawing right as the camera pans down to the ‘Matty Tie-down’ strap, still firmly connected to the aircraft and the ground.

Even today, Matt is happy to share his story (and a laugh) for enhanced performance. I know James, the CFI will be having a good chuckle as he reads and re-lives the scenario, one that has not yet been repeated!

So for those lucky enough to get some well-earned down time over Christmas and the New Year, I encourage you to take some time to think about unnecessary distractions and how you can better manage them for enhanced performance. It’s something that confronts us all, and it’s even more critical to manage as we become over-confident and/or complacent.

In the coming months from February 2019 I’m going to focus on emerging science aligned with habit patterns for high performance, with an emphasis on managing distractions.

Safe travels and flying over the Christmas/New Year period, thanks for the interest this year in the Human Factors articles, and I look forward to catching up with you in February 2019.