PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - College: Problems with stress-related "anger"
Old 17th Dec 2008, 05:56
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Scooby Don't
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
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It is fairly normal for a young man, at times, to be an angry young man. The problem in ATC is that anger usually comes when it's least useful. Under stress of sheer numbers, or unexpected and unusual situations, a natural response is to get a little short-tempered. Age and experience are probably the best cures of all, bringing the knowledge that anger isn't helpful!

There are some controllers around for whom all their pilots are a**holes. [attn pilots - read on before getting offended!] In reality, if every pilots seems to an a**hole, the real a**hole is probably the controller. A controller getting steamed up by an unusual situation, especially one who is already busy, is likely to miss wrong readbacks and quite possibly to give wrong instructions despite knowing the right instuction to give. There can even be a temptation to throw your hands in the air and say "to hell with it", which obviously helps no one.

So, how to deal with what is in part a natural response to stress? The first thing is to train yourself to doing something counter-intuitive. THE BUSIER YOU ARE, THE SLOWER YOU MUST TALK! Seriously, this is a great trick. It has two effects. Firstly, it minimizes the risk of having to repeat instructions - pilots are more likely to hear you correctly the first time. Secondly, it calms everyone down, youself included.

When faced with something unusual, the first thing to do is nothing. You need time to think, so take a couple of seconds to collect your thoughts. If you have to say "roger mayday" or similar to keep an instructor happy, so be it, but take a step back while you think about what you need to do to resolve a situation.

In the college environment, it is a very good idea to find an instructor you trust and can talk to. By all means print off some of what gets written on this thread and discuss the advice you get here with your instructor. Those of us reading you post don't know the details of the unusual situations thrown your way, or your reaction to them, whereas your instructor will know.

Good luck!
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