system

DUH! We pilots knew this all along.

The physical act of flying the airplane is the EASY part. Synthesizing all the other stuff together and feeding it all into one’s “noodle” where it mixes in with all the aviation knowledge is the fun part for me. Once mastered, even that is easy. SOME people can’t do this. Just yesterday on a long drive south to our winter home, I let my wife drive so I could rest for an hour; she almost sideswiped a semi when she was looking down at the instrument panel of the vehicle. Look down; vehicle moves sideways. I see this all the time on the roads (not just from women). Some people basically can’t drive and chew gum. Pilots have to fly, chew gum, scan, juggle, tap dance, talk on the radio, read charts, scratch itches and once in a while land in a big river, too.

Anyhow … interesting read and research.

3 replies

Josh_Zide

Not mentioned in the article is a warped relationship with money, where thousands of dollars are nothing but a few dollars is a big deal.

1 reply

system

THAT is why they call them … “Aviation Monetary Units (AMU).”

Ron_Wanttaja

To the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “A Policeman’s Lot is Not a Happy One”:

When the enterprising flyer’s not a-flying
when the pilot isn’t occupied in flight
It’s a simple fact and there’s no use denying
That his mental equilibrium’s all right!

When the flyboy isn’t high above the weather
he is often just as sane as you and me
But the moment you get him and height together
he becomes a lunatic of high degree!

And when he straps you in and all the doors are shut (the doors are shut)
The pilot goes completely off his nut (off his nut!)

• Oscar Brand, “The Passenger’s Lament”, from the album “Up in the Air,” 1960.

Andrew_Sellers

You lost me at “I let my wife drive”.

Nick_Salai

I tell my students… Any monkey can fly a plane, its my job to teach you to think like a pilot.

1 reply

system

Precisely. That’s why we handed out “test pilot bananas” at Edwards AFB. Sometimes you run the test cards and sometimes you get to eat the banana.

airbearzln

As a professional pilot for about 60 years, I have always wondered why the people around me don’t seem to get it. Except for other pilots, of course. This article helps me understand! I suffer two additional handicaps, in addition to being an active airshow pilot, now that my big-airplane flying is over. I am an aero engineer, and, what I only admit to good friends, a lawyer. rob the" Tumbling Bear".

system

Amazing how many of you take this story at face value. The Chinese are notorious for faking research and/or publishing research that doesn’t meet even the barest of standards. The sample is too small to be valid anyway. As pilots we like to think of ourselves as gifted somehow. Fact is we aren’t. This is a good example of junk science in action. Sounds good and we want to believe it so it must be so.

2 replies

system

Learning to read changes your brain significantly, reducing your capacity to recognize faces among other things. So it wouldn’t be surprising if pilot training had some less dramatic brain effects.

system

Pilots are down from 827,000 in 1980 to about 600,000 in 2018. Unit shipment are down from approx. 18,000/yr in 1980 to about 1,000 in 2018. But, there’s good news, NetFactory billings are up by 8x per unit.

system

That may or may not be true, but assuming it is true, is it that only people with that particular type of brain become pilots, or does the training to become a pilot actually alter the brain? And what of the pilots that, shall we say, should take up some activity other than flying?

2 replies

system

Based on advice from safety experts, pilots will be OK as long as they don’t text while flying. Could be a distraction.

Christopher_Weedon

Somebody said there’s bananas?

system

I used to say that I’d be able to get my Instrument when I learned to fly the plane and write a letter to my aunt at the same time.

john_bent

Not wired differently - it’s still a human brain; customised to the piloting task! I must say though that articles like this may help partners to understand!

system

I want to see pictures of these pilots flying with the heads in scanners before I believe it.
On the other hand, “quick give then a doctorate, before they try any other research” also applies…

rbraeking

I’m a 65 year old student solo pilot. Just learning all the material necessary to pass the written test is a daunting task. I have my dad’s old manual from 1948. It is a 1/2 sheet pamphlet that he carried in his shirt pocket to study. My study materials fill up a bookshelf. Flying ‘bug smashers’ is not for the fainthearted. The number of antenna towers alone is amazing. Caressing the yoke is the easy part.

system

Larry, I was thinking the same thing.
As far as pilot brains go, I’ve seen many pilots who dreamed of becoming pilots and are mediocre at best.
Then folks that had no intention but grew up doing motorsports and such that are told they should give flying a try. They seem to succeed very quickly.
I believe its like the motorcycle zen theory.

1 reply

Charles_O

That crossed my mind as well, Gary. It would make sense to me that any activity, not just flying, affects the brain and helps it to grow in such regard. It is evident that each person is an individual and has different skills and abilities that help him/her in different activities and that can be further developed to become an even better pilot, for example. So, people who are skilled in multitasking and try flying will become good pilots, while people who are terrible at it will either give up flying or end up in a smoking hole in the cornfield. This is also called natural selection, lol.

Something that hasn’t been mentioned is: are there any other traits that would make one want to become a pilot that are linked with that “predisposition” for multitasking?

system

One of my best USAF friend’s Son was very big into go cart racing. When he finished college and went into the USAF as a pilot, he scared the crap out of his FAPE instructor during formation flying because he wasn’t adverse to tucking his airplane in with the other one. So your point is spot on, Dan.

system

I was thinking the same thing. If it is that people who think in certain ways become pilots, or become better pilots, that opens the idea to testing and identifying those that would make the best pilots before hour one. Or maybe there could be testing to see which ones have the ability to learn to think that way.