I usually fly relaxed and don't worry in advance. So far there hasn't been much thinking/worrying to do in my 4-engine jet on long haul.
I fly long-haul, too. Some of the best, sagest advice I ever received came from a liason officer years ago who said in his briefing, simply "stay tense."
I pondered on that statement for some time before coming to fully rest on it. The enormity of those two simple words carries a far bigger import than simply the connotation of whether or not to relax. Complacency kills, whether it became the inappropriate focus on a gear light in EAL #401 in the Everglades, or the loss of AA #965 near Cali. Staying tense is constantly scanning for traffic. Staying tense is being prepared. Staying tense is so many things, and one can do it at a relaxed pace (despite the apparent disparity). Stay tense, stay alive.
Many moons ago when I moonlighted as a security guard to supplement my meager pilot's salary, I serviced automatic teller machines with large sums of cash. This necessitated carrying a sidearm, and that necessitated training and qualification with a handgun. One of the training exercises involved (
bear with me, it does relate to flying, I promise) holding a heavy bank bag that was weighted down to replicate a bag of money, in one's shooting hand. That is, for a right handed shooter, one would hold the bag in the right hand. At the call to fire, one would dispose of the money, draw the sidearm, and put two shots to center mass, and one to the head of a target, an exercise known as the mozambique drill.
An interesting phenomenon took place with shooters. Often they would attempt to transfer the bank bag to their weak hand, or would hesitate while their mind aligned with the shoot. Bear in mind that the scenario involved a bad guy who was already in play; the money was no longer important because the guard was about to lose his life. His speed disposing of the money, drawing his weapon, and putting the rounds on target was critical to surviving the incident. Never the less, shooter after shooter hesitated, then in panic mode made poorly placed shots. This same shooter, when asked to fire the same drill without the bank bag, would have excellent shot placement, grouping, and time splits. No worries. Why then, the difference?
The exercise with the bank bag replicated something the guard would encounter on the street...carrying money and coming under fire. In fact, the week I did my qualification, six separate armed robberies had happened in the city, involving weapons confrontations with criminals, while servicing teller machines. It wasn't something to be taken lightly.
The bank bag took the shooter's mind. His focus was subconsciously tied to that bag. His purpose, of course, was to protect the money...but what's the point if one's about to die? The money becomes unimportant at that stage, because you can't protect the money if you're dead. Therefore, abandon the money, protect your life, then live to protect the money. Simple. The shooter, however, tended to have a connection to the tactile feel of the bag in the hand, with the muscles already grasping the weight of the contents. To mentally shift gears from carrying the bag to the opposite of abandoning the bag and going for the pistol...took training. One had to have an alert state of mind, with the idea of coming under attack constantly at the forefront. One had to be constantly searching, ready...tense.
Likewise, one doesn't need to be exhausting one's brain cells and tiring one's self by sweating profusely as one stares out into oblivion with empty-field myopia, while cruising the flight levels...but one can't fall into the trap of the Northwest Airlines #188 crew that missed their destination while arguing about union rights and pay issues, and tapping away on their computers, either. They could have stood to remain a little more tense about their job, and a little less tense about peripheral issues.
Some times we get focused, just on the wrong things. How many of us have driven for a time and suddenly realized that we don't remember the last few miles of highway, or going through that last traffic light? We saw it, perhaps, but our mind was on autopilot. Our subconscious saw the light was green and entered the intersection, though perhaps we were distracted or lost in thought. Something else took our mind, and our own complacency allowed us to do something unsafe...even though it would be entirely against our nature to do so. Ever glanced down at the spedometer and found that you're going a lot faster than you should, or than you intended? This is complacency; this is the failure of not paying attention. This is the failure of not staying tense.
Semantics, perhaps, but you see my point.
Having said that, had that horribly inattentive, disoriented (unoriented?) crew had 3-D synthetic vision integrated with EGPWS/TAWS there is a good chance they would have seen the situation in sufficient time to have prevented the crash.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda, and though it didn't actually occur in the enroute portion but rather the arrival phase, the fact remains that through complacency they are none the less dead...as are most of their passengers. Gagets don't replace common sense, tense attention to the task at hand, or hillsides that come through windshields to crush one's skull. Even a highly capable airplane, a highly trained crew, and a known route, was no match for a big pile of rock and dirt.
They didn't miss the top by much, just by enough. One could say that if they were better equipped, they might have made it. One could say that if they were more situationally aware, they might have made it. One could say that if they'd stowed speed brakes and climbed a bit more, they might have made it. They were just shy on every count, and just shy put them
into the hill.
I think navigation then, is a very big issue when traveling cross country in a turbojet airplane. Even when one has state-of-the-art navigational computers, displays, and equipment on board.
Reading the weather as one goes is an important consideration; one can box one's self into an unpleasant place with few alternatives, if one isn't careful...particularly when traveling long distances to remote locations.
Along the same theme as staying tense, staying in touch with the airplane is important. One can easily get complacent about the airplane as it cruises level in autopilot, but we have only to look at an incident such as the 1985 China Airlines #006 B747SP control loss over the pacific to see the results. The crew was flying a long leg from Taipei to San Fransisco, when they lost control of the airplane over the ocean. The event resulted in a departure from controlled flight and a descent from 41,000' to 9,500'. The reason? Complacency, and being out of the loop while the autopilot flew the airplane. We can find a number of cases of crews who allowed the autopilot to run to a full trim extreme before disconnecting (due to fuel imbalance, control issues, ice, etc)...who then couldn't maintain control or had to fight for control.
Despite dandy radios and boxes, and superb autopilots, the biggest thing to watch for in cruise in a turbojet airplane is pilot complacency. The pilot continues to be the most dangerous element in the airplane. This isn't necessary, however, and it's the ability to continually focus on the mission at hand that makes him or her worth his weight in gold paperclips.
In a conversation a few days ago, a fellow crewmember commented to me that he has to have something to read or do enroute, because it challenges his mind. It keeps him spooled up, so to speak. During an approach in a turbojet airplane, we keep the engines spooled...in part because we need the thrust during a stable approach, but also in part because we need to engines spooled and ready if we have to execute a go-around or missed approach. Likewise, keeping our minds spooled is equally important, and that comes back to staying tense. Keeping the brain going using whatever method works best for each individual, in order to stay in tune with the airplane and the flight is crucial, in my opinion, to a safe and successful flight.
This doesn't mean one must lean forward and stare at the instrument displays until one's eyes burn holes in them (
or they burn holes in one's eyes, whichever comes first). It does mean that one needs to remain mentally alert and focused such that one doesn't allow all one's fuel to drain out on one side before doing something, or one doesn't shut down the wrong engine while trying to get "back in the loop," or one doesn't commit a gross navigational error.
Recently during a recurrent ground school, we were given a list of recent GNE's (
gross navigational errors) on the North Atlantic Tracks. These involved a litany of big names, internaitonal carriers, that were well equipped, and flown by professional, highly trained crews. The errors ranged from missed position reports (
not that big a deal) to incorrect position reports (
still not that big a deal), to being 60 nautical miles off (
a very big deal) and having programmed in the wrong crossing coordinates (
a big, big deal). This, with modern displays and systems, and nice FMC-equipped aircraft using the latest in navigational technology. Remember, garbage-in, garbage-flown, and the best of data is only as good as the fat fingers programming it into the box.
Dandy gizmo' are great, but are no replacement or safeguard against complacency and failure to stay tense (
focus).
This isn't really that much different than the same requirements when flying a turboprop or piston airplane, but one can get into more trouble faster, farther, and in broader spots of the world, in a "jet."