Stalling Your Mind, Part 2

In the first part of this article, we looked at the nature of human performance under stress. When you're working hard at something you can do and it's all going right then you can perform well and it's great fun. However, when things start to go wrong - when you miss that climb or make a bad decision, or just get unlucky - the adrenaline level starts to climb. Under such stress, the body and brain produce a cocktail of hormones that will eventually shut down your higher cognitive functions and shunt you into the "fight or flight" response state - and then you can't fly properly. This response to stress is universal but just as with other physiological limitations, you can train to improve your ultimate performance. There are a number of techniques that will help.

Under-Arousal

Let's look at "under-arousal" first - that's simply not paying attention, not being engaged with what you're doing, drifting off, and thinking about other stuff. This can cause dangerous errors in pre-flight preparation, such as not connecting the controls when you rig or taking off without locking the airbrakes first. And under-arousal can get you in flight - how many times have you rolled into a turn without checking that it's clear to do so? How many gear-up landings have you seen?

We already have the answer to this: checklists and procedures. But they are useless if you don't carefully and deliberately do the checks and follow the procedures! For instance, I would estimate that more than half of the people I fly with don't perform an adequate check of the glider's controls before taking off. They merely say "controls full and free movement" and wiggle the stick and rudder around a bit before moving on. This isn't a proper control check and you know it. Engage your mind, and do the work - this will ensure that you are engaged with the task and that your mind will deliver a reasonable level of performance. There is a more fashionable name for this: "mindfulness". Me, I call it "paying attention". 

Over-Arousal

What about "over-arousal" - where you become over-stressed and fall into the "fight or flight response?" There are several techniques you can use to prevent this. The first is simple: get an adequate briefing if you need one, and give yourself a briefing as well. It is hard to solve intellectual problems when you are in the air, and failure to remember a frequency, identify a piece of airspace in your path, or even being unable to work your flight computer can lead to "fails" - moments when you can't solve the problem. Too many "fails" too close together and you'll get a systems crash in your head. So run through your flight before you take off. Sort out the details: get your flight computer up and running, identify the airspaces on track, find the frequencies and make a note or program your radio. Identify potential problems and prepare for them. This pre-planning work involves digging items out of long-term memory and putting them at the front of your mind for instant recall or even learning new facts from scratch. It will all make life easier when you get under pressure: having "thought it through" you'll "know what to do". I'm using the quotes here because you will have used these phrases many times. Nothing is new here. So again, do the work on the ground so you don't have to do it when you're flying.

Continue this process in flight. When it's quiet and you're not busy then review what is coming up next. Use the "rule of 3" - say to yourself "what will I be doing in the next 30 seconds, the next three minutes, the next thirty minutes, and the next three hours?" Am I prepared for it?

"If I don't get a climb on that ridge, where will I go? OK, over to that lower hill, and there's a strip at the bottom if I can't soar. "

Then when things go wrong you will already have a plan. And if you can't make a satisfactory plan then don't get into the situation in the first place. This is easy to say and hard to do, but you must look and plan ahead. 

So you're well prepared and you're flying along and - something goes wrong. Maybe it's blue and you miss the next climb - and the next one - and now you're low. You start to get tense and sweaty, pushing on both the rudder pedals at once and gripping the stick too hard. STOP! Take a moment: breathe in and take your hands and feet off the controls as you do so - just for a moment. (The glider won't go anywhere, it's trimmed after all - isn't it?) Then, as you breathe out, put the fingers of your right hand back on the stick, very gently. Put your toes back on the pedals - just touching, not pushing. Look up and out, look at the cloud above you, look at the ground directly beneath, deliberately moving your head around as far as you can. Then return to the task at hand. This will help you to relax. After a few minutes you'll probably start to lock up again, so repeat the procedure. I might have to do this several times in one climb: it works. Oh, and by the way, when you look around - especially when you look directly above - you may well find the answer to your difficulties. Another glider, a cloud you hadn't seen...

Another tactic is to employ what is called "box breathing" or sometimes "Navy Seal" breathing: a controlled breathing regime that breaks the approach to the "fight or flight" takeover. It's easy to describe, hard to do, and requires some practice. Breathe in over a slow count of four. Hold for a count of four. Breathe out to a slow count of four. Hold for four. Repeat...This is pretty effective but as I said, hard to do and requires practice. I've found it useful.

Finally, if it all goes completely to hell then forget about the task, or where you're coming in the competition. Recognise that you're in a bit of a fix and focus on the essentials. Find somewhere to land: if you can find a strip or a good field so much the better, but remember that even the hottest glider is easy and safe to put down if you can pull off a good landing with wings level, into the wind, on flat ground. So when all else fails, get the wind, pick a spot, fly a coordinated circuit around it and do a good approach and landing. Failing to complete a task and consequently landing out is an integral part of gliding so be ready to do it. Be twice as ready if you have a little engine on board: most of the time it will work and save you from a field. Most of the time: go figure.

Any activity where you can't stop, have a break, think about it, and start again is a "performance" situation and is subject to these physiological limitations. This is true whether you're flying real airplanes or models, racing gliders, motorbikes, or sailboats, even if you're playing the piano in a bar. Try to keep track of your own personal arousal level: prepare, practise, think ahead and make sure you don't crash your mind. This will improve your performance and your safety.

Have fun.

G

For a more detailed review of this subject read The Soaring engine volume three.

Photo by Jimmy Hamilton

   G Dale is the popular author of The Soaring Engine book series.  He follows the endless summer, working for the British Gliding Association, The Gliding Association of New Zealand, and the Gliding Federation of Australia, always teaching cross country flying. He’s also flown and worked at various gliding clubs around the world: at Nympsfield as Chief flying instructor, at Booker again as CFI, at Lasham as DCFI and soaring coach, and at Glide Omarama as head coach, with visits to Minden, Serres, Takikkawa, Narromine, Lake Keepit, and many other clubs as a peripatetic soaring instructor and mountain flying coach.