Stressful Flying
Psychological problems come rife with early cross countries and competition flights, both real and imagined. The problem with this is that the pilot (you), often takes some time to find appropriate answers to these stressors, and subsequently, the progress is slow, or worse still, it may even become so difficult that one gives up gliding. This is where outside help is so important, speak with your local coach, mentor, or idol. Any of these will have been in the same position as you once upon a time, they will be able to considerably speed up your progress and should be able to retain otherwise lost people to the sport. If your club hasn’t got a mentoring or coaching system, why not try and set one up, not only for yourself but for the greater good of your members, it’s amazing what you can learn.
Gliding is mostly a game of the brain. First, we must have the basics of good health down pat, inflight care of yourself (both mind and body), following this, it is then a matter of making good decisions. Hand flying skills are almost equal amongst the board of pilots, so it’s the decision-making that is the difference between good pilots and great pilots.
Chain of Events
Emotions get in the way, whether you like it or not. They get in the way of normal logical processes, the chain of events that cause these problems are:
- The environment – situations are encountered.
- Cognition – every situation is different; thousands of thoughts enter the mind.
- Emotions – From these thoughts, feelings are generated.
- Behavior – a decision is made, followed by the appropriate action taken.
- Outcome – the result of the decision-making process.
Where is the underlying problem coming from? Two and three above. From earlier experiences, emotional responses come to mind, almost automatically. The biggest concern in this topic, the negative emotions. They are in total opposition to the logical thought process and analysis. Unfortunately, often they are so strong that they can override everything and we make non-logical decisions.
Emotional Intrusions
The good thing is that these emotional intrusions are internal, which means we can do something about them. We need to identify them first and foremost. Then make a plan to avoid them. With practice they can be guarded against.
6 basic forms of emotional intrusions that affect are as follows.
- Self-doubt
- Inadequacy
- Irrational Fear
- Unwarranted Anxiety
- Guilt
- Resentment
Solution
These can happen so subtly that you may not even recognise that these intrusions are there and destroying your performance. What must you do? Educate yourself (starting with this article as the seed) to recognise when they are affecting you, take a step back on the ground to figure out how to counteract these negative emotions, then make a plan to avoid them when they next appear, make it automatic so you don’t have to think about them too much in the future. Here’s a pneumonic that I use to combat situations, all subconsciously now though.
P – Pool the facts: decide that you have a problem (or an opportunity!)
I – Identify the problem (or the opportunity)
L – Look for solutions, can it be ignored, or must you do something about it?
O – Operate, do something if you must!
T – Take stock, evaluate. If needed, run the PILOT model above again, be honest with yourself for the best results.
An excellent aid to help with this subject is to film yourself &/or to record your voice feelings in flight as soon as negative emotions come into play. Then play this back at your earliest opportunity, take notes, think about that scenario and figure out the solution, the cure, how to avoid the situation in the future. I have no doubt that one day you’ll have a quiet laugh to yourself at how could you have such irrational thoughts!
Happy soaring
Banner photo by Bozena Michalowski
Adam Woolley was born into the gliding world, being the 3rd generation in his family. Going solo at 15, his thirst for efficiency in soaring flight & quest for a world championship title to his name has never wavered. One big passion is sharing his experiences & joy with other glider pilots all around the world. Adam is an airline pilot in Japan on the B767 & spends his off time chasing summer around the globe. He has now won 7 national Championships & represented Australia at 5 WGC's & 1 EGC.
