Psychological Characteristics Ideal to Military Aviators

[Jane-DoH]

Assuming this isn't classified, how does the USAF, RAF, USN, RN FAA, determine what people are unsuitable to be pilots and which aren't

1.) Presently
2.) Ten to Twenty Years Ago
3.) Twenty to Thirty Years Ago
4.) Thirty to Forty Years Ago

[xenolith]

You need to see a doctor pal!

[The Old Fat One]

Currently the RAF use the following selection criteria

"Good morning...are you a member of the Royal Family?

Yes...proceed to the tailors for measurement.

No...have you considered a career in retail or fast food?

[diginagain]

Previously, the RAF selection process revolved around the ability to pronounce three words in quick succession;

"Air, hair, lair"

[just another jocky]

At a guess, the last 2 posters are not RAF (you can tell, the banter is somewhat below par! ;))

AFAIK, RAF pilots need (in no particular order):

Huge gonads
An unrivalled charismatic sexual attraction in women
Massive intellect
Dynamic sporting prowess

...please continue. :}

[Lonewolf_50]

Jane, it goes in three parts usually.

Initial screening include a battery of tests (ASTB), demonstrated physical exam criterion met, and various interviews. You typically need to also have demonstrated the ability to acquire a university degree with better than average marks.

Then, there is initial flight training. This isn't just training, it is also a screening process. Some things you don't find out until people try to do them. Air sense doesn't penetrate all skulls.

Finally, there is the minimum performance standard. If the first two criterion are met, one must still acquire sufficient flying and decision making skills in a finite period of instruction, or the USN or USAF will not keep investing time and money into the prospective aviator.

You've asked a fairly big question.

What is it you really want to know, Jane?

I can tell you with certainty that presently, that is how it works, in the United States Navy.

Ten years ago, the screening tests were deemed to be less than suitable, and a five year program/overhaul was initiated. This was in part due to a number of the tests being compromised, and in part due to the medical, psych and learning/education experts believing that better screening tools could be applied.

Twenty years ago, mostly the same, but simulation fidelity to actual flying wasn't all that great.
Thirty years ago, once again, the same, thgough there began to be screening quotas cropping up for selected demographics to overcome systemic bias (or the perception thereof). One still had to show that one had the skills to fly, however, to get through it.

Roughly forty years ago, you typically had to have a penis to get assigned to flight training ... but that was in the process of being changed.

[teeteringhead]

I think the short-ish and serious-ish (sorry chaps) answer to the question is the well-known "stable extravert". Where the psychological differences have arisen (and they surely have) in the discrete time-frames that the OP used, is surely the difference in contemporary definitions of what is generally accepted as "extravert" and what is generally accepted as "stable"?

But in keeping with the way this thread has gone so far, I believe we should remember (and say together!) The Aviators' Prayer:

Oh Lord, pray grant me:

The Wings of an Eagle

The Courage of a Lion

The Eyes of a Hawk ...........















....... and the Balls of an SH Pilot!!!! :ok:

[soddim]

Big watch, wrinkled flightsuit and little dick.

Guaranteed fast jets.

[Flyt3est]

The ability to lie spontaneously about;

1. Flying ability.

2. Flying Experience.

3. Sexual Prowess.

4. Drinking ability.

5. What actually happened to make the aircraft go tits-up.

[Pontius Navigator]

1.) Presently if in doubt, don't
2.) Ten to Twenty Years Ago make every bomb count
3.) Twenty to Thirty Years Ago no longer Warsaw Pact Central Heating Inc.
4.) Thirty to Forty Years Ago collateral damage was a bonus and don't bring the bombs back


In other words, flexibilty of thought is the key to air power. Bombing back to the stone age was not politically correct.

[Lonewolf_50]

Jane, your question approaches fallacious reasoning. Do you presume that there is an optimal phsychological type?

There isn't.

Psychological Characteristics Ideal to Military Aviators

There are a variety of characteristics that successful aviators share, but there are significant variations in psychological profile of successful military aviators. You get a mix of the old "Type A" and "Type B" in any ready room. If you didn't, you'd have non trivial problems and friction.

What are the mimimum characteristics common to all?

Is that your question?

There are a few I've noticed over the years that seem to be universal ...

1. Self confidence
2. Passion for learning/finding out/understanding
3. Ability to compartmentalize
4. Ability to learn quickly
5. Ability to use inference
6. Ability to memorize facts in an orderly fashion
7. Ability to listen effectively
8. Ability to multi task

Each of these manifests itself differently in behaviors in a given individual, but those characters of mind are commonly successful.

Ideal?

Be just like me. :}

[brakedwell]

Fifty years ago -

1. The ability to drink five pints of beer while standing on ones head without being sick.

2. Being able to survive on twenty quid a month!

3. An addiction to the smell of 100 octane avgas.

[Tankertrashnav]

When I was sitting down the back, the guy I was happiest flying behind was the one with a wife, three kids, a garden and a great desire to get back on the ground in one piece. Had the same priorities as me.

[AdLib]

The body of a nuclear scientist and the mind of an Olympic athlete.






Did somebody mention beer?

[Pontius Navigator]

TTN, quite right, we expected to land safely after every sortie but did not really expect to survive just one mission.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Stated psychological type required was stable extrovert. 20/30 years ago (Cold War), RAF Doc of my acquaintance said most FJ types were (in his opinion) introverts when sober, extroverts when drunk, and borderline unstable always.

Job requirement was a preparedness (but not a desire) to drop a nuclear weapon on a Sov. primary school, daily* if necessary. This doesn't attract too many people who were otherwise considering accountancy.

(* not the same school, obviously. That would be a bit harsh...:E Rather a waste of resources too.
n.b. school was assumed to have an HQ under it)

Adlib :D:D

Lonewolf - I think we should add never, EVER, giving up.

[ex-fast-jets]

Simples.

The best pilots - who are always the modest ones - join the RAF.

The rest go to the Navy.

[Jane-DoH]

Lonewolf 50

Initial screening include a battery of tests (ASTB)

What's an ASTB?

demonstrated physical exam criterion met, and various interviews.

Makes enough sense

You typically need to also have demonstrated the ability to acquire a university degree with better than average marks.

Straight forward enough

Then, there is initial flight training. This isn't just training, it is also a screening process. Some things you don't find out until people try to do them. Air sense doesn't penetrate all skulls.

Finally, there is the minimum performance standard. If the first two criterion are met, one must still acquire sufficient flying and decision making skills in a finite period of instruction, or the USN or USAF will not keep investing time and money into the prospective aviator.

Well that's logical enough

Thirty years ago, once again, the same, thgough there began to be screening quotas cropping up for selected demographics to overcome systemic bias (or the perception thereof). One still had to show that one had the skills to fly, however, to get through it.

Affirmative action...


tetteringhead

I think the short-ish and serious-ish (sorry chaps) answer to the question is the well-known "stable extravert".

What defines a stable extravert?


Flyt3est

The ability to lie spontaneously about;

1. Flying ability.

2. Flying Experience.

3. Sexual Prowess.

4. Drinking ability.

I thought anybody could do that?

5. What actually happened to make the aircraft go tits-up.

That takes a bit more skill


Lonewolf 50

There are a few I've noticed over the years that seem to be universal ...

1. Self confidence

That's straight forward enough

2. Passion for learning/finding out/understanding

You couldn't really be very good at comprehending and adapting to enemy tactics otherwise I suppose...

3. Ability to compartmentalize

Can you explain exactly what you mean there? Do you mean like rationalization?

4. Ability to learn quickly
5. Ability to use inference
6. Ability to memorize facts in an orderly fashion
7. Ability to listen effectively
8. Ability to multi task

Makes sense enough...

Each of these manifests itself differently in behaviors in a given individual

You mean to the exact degree?

[galaxy flyer]

Jane DoH

A Dr. Jerry Berlin has done a lot of work on the subject, as has a number of shrinks on F1 level race drivers, there is some similarities. Dr. Berlin worked for the Israeli AF to select pilots and earned a great deal of respect for it.

I can't say what he learned and how he applied despite several conversations with him, they were more social situations. I honestly don't think the USAF has a real psych profile in mind beyond the tests. It does all sort itself in pilot training, the confident, aggressive types get th fighters.

GF

[tarbaby]

I thought "pilot" and "intelligence" was a dichotomy of terms. :-) Every FI will tell you they could teach monkeys to fly so pilots can not be that much more difficult.How ever over a 16 year period I have been flown by the nearly, if not alcoholic, to the straightest of dry straight arrows. Only two I would not wish to again, though I do believe the feeling is mutual.

[Krystal n chips]

The ability to be consistently plausible when making excuses as to why the aircraft was wholly and always at fault with regard to any defect also helps....

[Lonewolf_50]

Jane, to explain a few things
3. Ability to compartmentalize
Can you explain exactly what you mean there?
Do you mean like rationalization?

No. Compartmentalization is a skill of mental capacity to focus on what is at hand, and set aside that which is not.

You leave the office at the office, the wife at home, and focus on cockpit and mission tasks.

Those who can't do that frequently make mistakes, some of them fatal, in the cockpit.

If you can find it on the web, try to view a copy of the lecture "Sex and the Naval Aviator." This film was hugely popular as a training tool regarding the psychology of American Navy pilots. It was presented by an experienced flight surgeon who'd been dealing with pilots for most of his career.
Each of these manifests itself differently in behaviors in a given individual
You mean to the exact degree?

No, I mean what I said, not what you said.
Why did you try to change the meaning of what I said? Perhaps what I am getting at is that of those factors, each may have a slightly different weight in a given individual.

ASTB means Aviation Selection Test Battery
ASTB Overview (http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/navmedmpte/nomi/nami/Pages/ASTBOverview.aspx)

ASTB Study Guide (http://www.carolinamarineofficer.com/files/ASTB_Study_Guide.htm)
I find that the internet, and gouge, render the original intent of the ASTB style tests (used to be AQT/FAR) less effective than when one could not use the gouge or "know what was on the test before you took it."

Fox3: good point. "Don't ever give up" is a good mental predisposition.
"I can do this!" has a name, I am sure, among the shrinks, but I can't recall it at the moment.

Another point, Jane: successful military pilots, in terms of those who are successful over the long term, also have the capacity for honest self-criticism. I don't know what the shrinks call that: humility?

In a given ready room, finding humility is sometimes tougher than finding a virgin in a brothel ... who isn't a customer! :}

[Jig Peter]

Lonewolf 50's last line reminds me of the "service provider's" supposed description of a typical pilot:
"Clean collar, dirty shirt, small **** and no money".
Granted, it was made a long time ago: collars aren't usually detachable these days ...

[jamesdevice]

"All the RAF pilots I've met are brain-dead from the bollocks upwards"

- quote from the 1970's from a school friend who was the teenage daughter of a company test pilot

[Wander00]

Thought "compartmentalisation" was generally a "male" attribute - so how do women pilots deal with the issue?

[jamesdevice]

"- so how do women pilots deal with the issue?"
it's well known women can only concentrate on one thing at a time

[airpolice]

James,

Yeah, 'cause if a woman could multi task, she could have a headache and sex at the same time!

[brakedwell]

Bugis Street, Singapore.1966. "You aircrew all same, big ticker, small pricker and pay by cheque" :)

[Jane-DoH]

Fox3WheresMyBanana

Stated psychological type required was stable extrovert. 20/30 years ago (Cold War), RAF Doc of my acquaintance said most FJ types were (in his opinion) introverts when sober, extroverts when drunk, and borderline unstable always.

I'm ambiverted (mildly extraverted) when sober; able to tolerate a huge amount of alcohol (genetics?), but sluggish and heavy when intoxicated (I don't enjoy it at all), I think a lot and have OCD when I'm by myself, but in emergencies I seem to be the most level-headed and strangely calm person in the group -- (I was a lifeguard for several years and saved 11 people, of which one had a cardiac arrest).


galaxy flyer

A Dr. Jerry Berlin has done a lot of work on the subject, as has a number of shrinks on F1 level race drivers, there is some similarities.

That makes sense. Eddie Rickenbacker was a race-car driver prior to becoming a pilot.


Krystal n chips

The ability to be consistently plausible when making excuses as to why the aircraft was wholly and always at fault with regard to any defect also helps....

LMAO


Lonewolf 50

No. Compartmentalization is a skill of mental capacity to focus on what is at hand, and set aside that which is not.

Oh, okay -- I understand what you mean. That usually isn't that hard to do, adrenaline really helps assist that process though.

If you can find it on the web, try to view a copy of the lecture "Sex and the Naval Aviator." This film was hugely popular as a training tool regarding the psychology of American Navy pilots. It was presented by an experienced flight surgeon who'd been dealing with pilots for most of his career.

Sounds like an interesting lecture...

"Don't ever give up" is a good mental predisposition.

It's important to not just be determined, but to know when what you're doing just isn't cutting it, start trying something different, switch strategies and taking different angles.

ASTB means Aviation Selection Test Battery

Understood

Another point, Jane: successful military pilots, in terms of those who are successful over the long term, also have the capacity for honest self-criticism.

Makes sense. If you never acknowledged your weak-spots, it would only be a matter of time before that weak-spot would eventually get you creamed in one way or another.

[Unusual Attitude]

Fifty years ago -

1. The ability to drink five pints of beer while standing on ones head without being sick.

2. Being able to survive on twenty quid a month!

3. An addiction to the smell of 100 octane avgas.

Sounds like most FI's I know.....