The Mental Game of Soaring - Part 2
This is the second part of a two-part article on the mental aspects of cross-country flying. In the first article, we talked about the importance of self-image and how to break through the limitations of a negative or restricting self-image. In this second part, we will talk about the optimum mental state that we want during flight and the things that upset that state (mostly fear and distraction) and discuss how to regain the mental state where we can fly effectively again. If you are interested in learning more about these topics, Part 1 of the article ends with a suggested reading list.
Mark Twain Was Right (but it doesn’t matter)
I think this has happened to all of us: The flight is going great, we are mentally relaxed, fully alert, and “in the zone”. We feel connected to the glider. We are flying very well; the task is going effortlessly, and we are enjoying it. We understand the clouds and they are working as we expect. We are flying near the top of the height band and feel at the top of our game. We are totally focused on the flight, the clouds, and the sky. We make our speed and flap changes automatically without thinking about them. There is nothing in our mind except this moment, this flight, this cloud, this transition, and this climb - yet we intuitively know our next step and all the steps after. It is all just great.
Then, we lose it. We just plain lose it. A mental state that we did not realize was fragile is now completely broken. Where there was confidence there now is doubt, worry, and second-guessing. Boldness is replaced with tentativeness. Clouds don’t work right anymore. Our speed is wrong. We forget to reset the flaps. We make more mistakes. More doubt creeps in. We rethink and recalculate the task in our minds and think about skipping the turn point. We become afraid to go deep into the current task area. We obsess about what the other pilots are doing and believe they all are beating us badly. We are desperate to make final glide and milk weak thermals too long. We worry about losing the contest day, or about our OLC score, our position on the team, or about what others will think of us, or who will come get us if we land out. We worry whether that cold-soaked motor in the back will start when we need it. Nothing seems right anymore.
These are 2 very different mental places that we all have been in – and sometimes on the same flight. I’ve spent a lot of my 49 years soaring thinking about these 2 places and how I got from the first mental place to the second one – and how to get myself back to the good place. That’s the point of this second part of this article on the “Mental Game” of soaring. I don’t have all the answers, but I can share a few things that I’ve learned about controlling my mind while flying cross-country.
Mark Twain once wrote, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened”. This is true for glider pilots also, as all of us have successfully survived and managed the thousands of things that we have worried about in flight. The bad news is – it doesn’t matter that the thing you are worried about probably isn’t going to happen. Once our confidence is broken and fear begins to creep in, no amount of logic or application of reason is going to be helpful. A rational person will never convince a hysterical person that they are wrong to be upset. Immediate emotion is always stronger than reason. It’s true between two people and it's true when emotion and reason conflict in the same brain at the same time. You can’t reason your way out of an anxiety attack.
Controlling Fear
When I was young and in Army basic training, we had a “confidence course” that was diabolically simple: There was an 8-inch wide and solid board on the ground that you walked on for 10 feet. Then, you stepped up 2 feet to another board 2 feet in the air (no hand holds – just the step from one board to the next) and you walked across that board to another 2-foot step up – and onto another higher board and step, etc. Usually, at the step from 8 feet up to 10 feet, it got very interesting. Although all steps were identical, the ones that were down lower were easy to navigate - any child could do it. But once you got to the step from 8 to 10 feet mistakes began to have consequences. Your knees began to tremble. You had trouble even just standing on the board. The next step up became near impossible to do because your brain was screaming warnings and pumping you full of adrenaline. Stated simply: fear and anxiety defeated your ability to do a very simple physical task that you had done 3 times less than a minute ago. Your knowledge that you had done it a minute before didn’t help. Rational analysis that a 10-foot fall wouldn’t kill you also didn’t help. Fear starts as a soft voice that gets your attention – then it becomes a scream that won’t let you solve the problem. Fear drowns everything else out. You must learn to control the fear, or else it completely disables you. That’s true in flying also.
Humans need an internal switch or “reset button” to help us to relax, refocus, and regain some degree of equanimity in times of stress. You can do this by creating for yourself a trigger or “ritual” that you can perform in flight and which you have trained your mind to associate with calmness and focus. Have you ever noticed that certain baseball players when they get ready to bat will go through very specific body motions (like tapping the bat on their shoes or pulling on the visor of their helmet)? Or that basketball players always do the same number of bounces before a free throw? Or tennis players do the same exact movements before a serve? These athletes are not engaged in superstition. Rather, they have developed certain physical actions or “rituals” that they have trained and programmed themselves to mentally associate with relaxation and focus. It’s their “reset button” for when the pressure is on. My personal one is taking 3 deep slow breaths – but you can use anything that works for you. This takes a good deal of practice and repetition of the ritual when not flying (and at a time of focus and relaxation), but it is a tool that really works. When a stressful moment comes in flying, the ritual will help you address and overcome it.
Be “Right here, right now”
In a different article I discussed how difficult it is to “think about - how you are thinking” and even more difficult to control how we
are thinking. One way is to ask yourself some questions frequently during your flight – and especially when things begin to go wrong. A good question is, "Is what I am thinking about right now helping me to fly safer or more efficiently?" If the answer to that question is "No" - then refocus your mind on something that IS helpful for safety or efficiency. Just banish the unhelpful thought. Another good question to ask yourself during a flight is, "Am I thinking about something 'right here right now'?" Or, has my mind wandered to another place (a problem at work or at home)? Or to something in the past (a lousy start, an old argument, a competitor that passed you)? Or to something in the future (Will I land out? Will the engine start? Or what will be my contest or OLC score)? Mental focus is all about the here and now and, and if you focus on only that, the score will take care of itself, you will pass that competitor in the next hour, and the land out will not happen. Here and now is all you can control anyway. Re-focus your mind on just this thermal entry, on only this climb, on only this thermal exit. The last one is gone. The next one isn’t here yet. All you have is now.
Set a budget for worrying
If you are having intrusive thoughts that are not helpful for efficiency or safety nor related to “right here / right now” it’s OK to bargain with yourself about giving them attention or mind space. You can say to yourself, “OK it’s 2:15 pm – I’m going to think about that a little at 3:00 pm – but I’m busy now.” It sounds very strange to bargain with yourself like this but it’s a very significant step in mental management – you are practicing controlling your mind. You decide when you will worry – not your unruly brain. I also try to give myself an occasional “break” from strict mental discipline. On a 6-hour flight, I can only focus so hard for so long. I give myself “permission” to let my mind wander a little, just for 5 minutes, when I’m at the top of my height band. Then, after the 5-minute break, it’s mentally “back to work” time. Try it – but stick to your budget.
Eliminate distractions
The part of the brain that helps us fly smoothly and with confidence is a different part than that which programs tasks in the computer or diagnoses the strange noise coming from the back of the glider, or which processes and responds to the chatter on the radio. The good part of the brain completely shuts down when you are sitting in a tub of cold ballast water because you put off fixing and checking that system. Do everything you can before and during the flight to minimize or eliminate distractions that upset your focus. Mid-flight is not the time to figure out how to make an adjustment on your Oudie. Avoid things that pull your mind to a different place than where you need it to be. There will be time for that stuff later.
Be your own good coach
I’ve learned that many pilots talk to themselves while flying alone and some even verbally berate themselves. They swear out loud and call themselves “stupid” or other names when they make mistakes or make even a minor misstep. This habit is both pointless and destructive and serves only to imprint in the subconscious mind an action that we want to eliminate. It is both a source of and a reaction to stress – not an antidote. If you really were a cross-country coach for someone else, would you treat the person like that? Then why do it to yourself? Gentle reminders to yourself are fine. Congratulating yourself on a really good move (like quick centering of a thermal) is good self-reinforcement too. But if you are expressing anger and frustration at yourself in the cockpit, go back and read the section above on “rituals” – or else take up bowling. This sport is supposed to be fun, right?
Get your head out of the glider
This is probably the most important step in dealing with stress and solving problems. The solution to just about everything is OUT THERE. When stress and challenge come you must train yourself to look – and I mean really look hard and exhaustively – outside of the glider at everything that is happening and changing. Look up, down, and near and far. You are looking for tools to solve the problem and assembling an inventory of things to help work the problem. Are there wisps forming in the blue? Or is another glider circling? Is that a bird above or below me? Is that cloud forming or dying? Is there an energy line knitting the clouds together? If you are low, then what is on the ground that might focus or trigger a thermal? Does the farm have a metal silo? Is there a stockyard that will be hot? A junkyard that will heat up? A mine or quarry with a wall perpendicular to the sun? A hillside or building that will trip the wind? Is there movement on the ground that might trigger or indicate a thermal (a train, a truck, a dust devil, or birds departing a tree)? Has smoke that was going sideways started to go vertical? What is the surface wind doing and can I get upwind of my safety field (so I can work very weak lift)? What is the pathway that will take me over the most likely lift sources before my landout field? There are hundreds of points of information out there to help you - if you just look outside for them. This is the thinking that both effectively solve problems and effectively control stress. It is how you get yourself mentally “back in the game”.
I hope that some of these ideas help you.
Have fun, stay safe, get better.
Banner by Roberto Ruiz
Roy Bourgeois is a well-known US and South African glider pilot who served many years as the Chief Pilot for the Greater Boston Soaring Club and now lives and flies in Arizona. He has held several US national records, competed in many US and Canadian Nationals, and has flown over 300,000 XC kilometers in his 4400 hours of gliding. He can be reached at royb@bw.legal