Part 1 of 4
Sometimes an interested observer can pick up on the fact that there is a rather routine misunderstanding by instructors and evaluators of what it takes to fly an airplane. Routinely, the understanding is that instructors teach the necessary skills and evaluators verify that an applicant can demonstrate a sufficient mastery of those skills. Job done? Well ... maybe ... maybe not. The piloting process is one that encompasses a series of appropriate behaviors to achieve the singular goal of completing a safe and efficient flight. As indicated in a post above, pilot behaviors fall into three basic categories or behavior “sets:” 1) skill-based behaviors; 2) rules-based behaviors; and 3) knowledge-based behaviors. Each of these behavior sets encompasses both strengths and weaknesses and developing an understanding of and an appreciation for these strengths and weaknesses in each of these behavior sets can assist in providing a strong basis for informed decision making when operating an airplane.
Skill-Based Behaviors
Because skill-based behaviors are the most immediately visible to a student, they are usually the first type of behaviors a pilot encounters, and, therefore, draws the significant portion of his/her attention at the beginning of training. Coordination of flight controls, use of pitch and power to maintain or adjust altitude, airspeed, rate of decent, or rate of climb, and maintaining the necessary and correct visual references during a specific maneuver or task are all examples of skill-based behaviors. In order to successfully fly an airplane a pilot must develop, master, and be able to demonstrate basic skills. Certainly, during the early stages of training and, not surprisingly, as each additional commitment to maintain existing proficiency or develop a new proficiency comes along, skill-based behaviors are, and must be, the significant focus for pilots. Developing at least basic proficiency in the necessary skills is both necessary and important in order to fly an airplane. However, and to show how behavior sets are related, and most seasoned and experienced flight instructors will confirm that imparting appropriate knowledge about the “hows” (helping to form knowledge-based skills) and the “whys” (also to form knowledge-based, but may include the formation of rules-based skills) to a student who is developing or honing a specific proficiency to accomplish a specific task, will, more often than not, allow that skill-based behavior to be achieved more easily.
As skill-based behaviors are developed and internalized, they are repeated; and as they are repeated the less conscious thought is required to perform the task. The tasks tend to become increasingly “automatic.” They tend to become “habit.” As our skills progress we find we can make airplane configuration changes (extend landing gear, increase flap settings, set the ground spoilers), change navigation radio frequencies, make power adjustments to affect airspeed changes, select differing instrument display alternatives, and maintain the desired flight path, all with enough left-over thought process capability to mentally review the route home and the stops necessary to acquire what our spouse had wanted to complete the dinner plans previously made.
The more we practice a particular skill, the more deeply habituated it becomes, making it increasingly difficult to change the particular perceptions and the pattern of movements learned to perform a given skill. This is why re-learning a skill improperly taught or incompletely learned initially is so very challenging. The more a pattern has become habituated, either by time or by some other motivating factor, if or when it becomes necessary to learn a “new process” for the accomplishment of a task or a portion of a task, it becomes a significant issue that drags the pilot back to the point of using up a greater portion of that once left-over thought process capability – and, at times, may demand more thought process than may be realized, and may be demanded to the detriment of the remainder of the previously habituated skill. In fact, one of the most often overlooked reasons for requiring some kind of recurring proficiency training or evaluation is to identify, and where necessary, correct, inappropriately developed habits.