I am a PPL(H) and fall into the 'successful businessman' category.
I agree with much that has been said above, the spare mental capacity, systematic approach, analyse and learn from your mistakes and those of others, always continue to train, and know your limits / fly within them or stay on the ground. I would like to add one more; how you react to the overload.
I see three reactions to overload - freeze like a rabbit in headlights and do nothing, focus one one thing only, or analyse what is important to prioritise actions.
If you are a rabbit - don't fly or ride a motorcycle. Take a bus, or if you must drive select a car based on it's ability to protect you in a head-on collision. I have a cousin like this. He has many road accidents behind him, not one his fault (insurance wise) but almost all he could have avoided if he had not frozen when things started to go wrong. He is 'successful' but his business does not punish that behaviour, he has time to recover and make decisions.
Many of us (more men than women?) fall into the 'Focus' category. It can lead to great business success, but it will lead you into danger in an aircraft. Problems with your radio? Focus on that, lose attitude and air speed, the ground will rush to meet you before you have finished twiddling with the radio controls.
To survive you have to be in the third category. Unfortunately, this behaviour is largely learned - there are a few who do this naturally (more women than men?). There is no such thing as multiple-tasking; we concentrate on things sequentially and we need to learn to keep moving (mentally). In overload we can fall back into 'Focus' as is demonstrated by so many air crash reports, even those involving professional pilots.
Practice means more familiarity with the aircraft and with your craft of flying. That means more spare capacity for increased workload, and therefore less overload situations. But how often do you get the opportunity to practice in overload? Professional pilots have the simulator and regularly get pushed until they do crash, so they get regular practice of dealing with overload. When training for my PPL in an unstabilised helicopter I did regularly experience overload and I found that invaluable in not just reinforcing Aviate, Navigate, Communicate but also within Aviate to focus (helicopter) on wings level, attitude / speed (they are connected), height, heading. Now I am in sole command of a turbine light helicopter, no stabilisation, with the most valuable cargo imaginable (my family). I only fly if I have controlled all the risks that I can control and the net result is within my capability. If the net result is even close to my limit, I pay for an instructor to come along - so my experience improves and my limit extends - or I don't go.
Finally, I set aside 4 weekends each year to pay for further instruction so that I can stay on top of what I do know (engine off to the ground, lost tail rotor, failed hydraulics, power loss below hover capability, etc) and to have the opportunity for the instructor to overload me so I can practice working through the overload. I always learn and finish the session feeling slightly small.
John
Last edited by John R81; 17th Dec 2011 at 12:50.