Mental Training

[Speedwinner]

Hello folks,

somebody told me that mental training is the most effectiv for flying and simulator exercises. Does anybody have some publications to this topic? Good articles also for sports or flying? Do you do it?

Thanks!

[Slasher]

Dont exactley catch yer drift - could you be a bit more specific?

[greenslopes]

Read a book titled 'Out of darkness: A memoir'. Author Zoltan Torey.
Zoltan discusses the benefits of mental imagery in increasing your situational awareness. He goes on to discuss how many of the great mathematicians and scientists are able to use mental imagery to literally see how equations and formulae behave in a 3D environment.
What your possibly alluding to is "Flying the chair". That is flying all sequences prior to Sim in the chair and practicing and refining.
Fundamentally 'Prior planning prevents piss poor performance' and 'Failing to plan is planning to fail', all very cliche'd but very true nonetheless.
Also have a look into situational awareness and OODA Loop, as you do searches more info will flood your way.

Good Luck

[planett]

Take a lesson from the Jedi......Relax, Concentrate, Visualise success. Imagine all of the correct physical and verbal responses to the emergencies/abnormalities AFM/SOP challenges etc. Sit in an empty cockpit/training device/or go jogging and get the responses memorized calmly. It worked for me when I was way past my prime in premier division rugby. (I got awards in my late 30's)

I'm also a medivac captain in the Canadian north operating a business jet.
The similarities between sports and flying made me realize that this is 90% a mental game.

[Slasher]

Ok so thats the drift.

The mental training in this particular racket comes mainly
from conditioning and experience. CRM etc augments (but
doesnt replace) this.

Greenslopes said most of the rest - only thing I can add
to that is the "what if" attitude is a great tool for survival
if things ever go tits up big time.

"Silly memory" devices (because silly things stand out in
the memory more than the mundane) are a great help in
remembering complex situations - for example, on the
simple end of the scale I instantly recall the formula to
calculate an (expected) crab angle by imagining a crab
walking sideways for 1 minute over an ASI swearing on
the bible (ASI telling the truth). This gives me Crab
Angle = Xwind componant / TAS nm per min. Sounds
dumb of course but it sticks in my brain. The 200hr kids I
train now and then find this method of recall particularly
usefull too.

Similarly the recalls in any QRH can be attacked in the
same fashion. All it needs is a "silly memory" path that
works for you, or a good nemonic. For instance I can still
remember the limitation of the 727 (from 20 years ago)
in the event of a double yaw damper loss - FL260 and
280kts (SM: There are 280 upper yaw dampers and
26,000 lower ones). On another type the electric drill was
"Great! Your A F**king Dumb ****!" (GYAFDS). But again
what SM works for me using this method mightn't work
for anyone else.

Im probably way off the original posters mark but then old
age is approaching... http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/infopop/icons/icon11.gif

[Yellow Sun]

Good articles also for sports or flying?

Sporting Body Sporting Mind by Syer & Connoly ISBN: 0671653032 / 0-671-65303-2

A good all round mental training for sports book.

Plenty of copies available here. (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=Sporting+Body+Sporting+Mind&x=50&y=9)

With Winning in Mind by Lanny Bassham ISBN: 1885221479 / 1-885221-47-9

Some people swear by him, it leaves others cold. He was an Olympic and twice World Champion so I suppose that he must have been doing something right!

Available here. (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Bassham&bi=0&bx=off&ds=30&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t&tn=With+Winning+in+mind&x=41&y=16)

Of the two I would go for Syer & Connoly first.

Hope that this helps.

YS