I was taking my semiweekly dose of social media this evening, Reddit being the drug of choice. When I stumbled upon something called the Gell-Mann amnesia effect. I had a good chuckle as it brought to mind all the movies being a pilot has ruined for me. I literally could not sit through the first 10 minutes of a TV show about an aeroplane getting hijacked that aired last year. Cosmetic errors like reaching for the gear lever when the Pilot flying called for the Flaps are tolerable. Things like that could easily be an error from the cutting and stitching of editing. On the other hand, there are certain deal-breakers; a helicopter pilot jumping into a jumbo jet cockpit and magically knowing what all the buttons do. Or someone who’s has x number of hours on a flight simulator landing the aeroplane without blowing out tires or overrunning the runway.
Part of our jobs is filtering that information for inaccuracies or inconsistencies.
It makes you wonder who is shaking their head at your favourite TV shows. I can imagine a lawyer watching Suits, or a Cop watching a crime procedural. It all ties into the Gell-Mann effect. Why does this matter to us? Well, it doesn’t really…. Or does it? As a pilot, you are constantly absorbing information about your aircraft, the airspace around you, the airport environment, your passengers, your crew members etc. The list goes on and on and changes depending on what type of operation you’re running. Part of our jobs is filtering that information for inaccuracies or inconsistencies. No one is a master of all knowledge and there will be gaps in your knowledge where you simply do not have the required information to spot the inconsistencies or errors. That’s where Crew Resource management comes in. Every member of your crew from the ground to flight deck has an arsenal of skills, experience and knowledge. Your job is to know what each individual is capable of and deploy them effectively in your stead.
It sounds like a daunting task; figuring out the strengths of people you probably just met for the first time and how to make them respond to you. That is exactly what a Captain does and this is one of the major reasons you get paid the big bucks. The ability to do all I’ve stated above comes from years of experience and you can start the process right from day one of flight school. Being a good judge of character is integral to a career as a great pilot. Make an effort to observe the behaviour of instructors, dispatchers and other students in your Flight school. You can even start with people in your life, think up different scenarios and try to imagine how they would respond. Next pose the scenarios to them and see how close your assumption was to their actual response. With practice, you will find your predictions getting increasingly spot-on. In closing, adopt the maxim, ‘trust but verify’. If you don’t have the required knowledge or skill to verify, then find someone who does.