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What ever
happened to the KISS principle?
By
Rob Mixon |
Recently, I sent a student to a golf course to improve his flying. I
suspected his golf game was as "by the numbers" as his flying. He was
always behind the airplane, because he was concentrating on what he "should"
be doing. He learned that trick from a previous flight instructor, who
didn't think the student was doing things accurately enough.
His assignment was to go to the driving range and feel the swing only
by concentrating on where the ball should go. When he felt the perfect
shot, he was to remember that feeling, and "transfer" it to flying. I
wanted him to feel like he was part of the airplane. Don't analyze it, just
do it. Perfection will come through practice. Or, as the coach has the
golfer in the movie Tin Cup doing all sorts of crazy things between
shots to keep from analyzing how you did things right, which, you guessed
it, only interferes with doing things right!
I call this the KISS ("Keep it simple, stupid") principle...not an
original idea of mine. We need more of it in aviation. We're buried under
aircraft performance numbers, instructor scare tactics that convince
students they're constantly about to crash an airplane, runway incursion
signs, and airline-minded instructors training their recreational students
for "heavy iron" jobs.
Instructors still emphasize that over-banking causes the aircraft to
stall at higher speeds, rudder usage will skid the airplane through a turn
for alignment, high power settings make for a safer, controlled descent to
landing, and full flaps should be used whenever possible "because they're
there." If concentrated on to extreme, the student may, in an overshoot to
Final Approach, be set up for right stick to shallow a left bank, left
rudder to keep the turn going, and power to make all of those unsafe
aerodynamic things safer. Of course, a cross-controlled spin is likely the
result. But you're never suppose to practice spins, because you'll most
certainly die as a result!
But our problems don't wait until we're airborne. With all the new
signs and verbiage, two parallel taxiways for each runway (cleverly named
with monikers like "Alpha" and "Bravo") and taxi that begin from little
numbered boxes somewhere on the ramp that we need an airport map to find,
we're probably overwhelmed, preoccupied with preventing a runway incursion
with a 747, or with deciphering the taxi clearance that goes something like,
"November one zero seven three Echo, at Spot 13, cleared to taxi Runway 9
via Bravo, parallel 27, and you may use Alpha as an alternative taxiway."
It's enough to make you long for the days when you were just, "Cleared to
Runway 27. That's keeping instructors and their students from actually
enjoying flying. Our students may never become a part of the airplane
because we don't keep training missions simple or focus on giving the
airplane the control inputs that are needed. Remember, trimmed properly,
most aircraft fly themselves.
I suppose the KISS principle is still there somewhere in aviation, but
maybe I'm just looking too hard to find it! Oh, by the way, the student I
sent to the golf course not only improved his flying...he improved his golf
game!
Rob Mixon is an Adj. Professor at Miami-Dade College, Homestead Campus,
where he teaches, Psychology of Personal Effectiveness. His website
is www.betterpilot.com .
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