Deep Survival

[jolly girl]

I am just finishing up Laurance Gonzales' book "Deep Survival" and was quite taken with it, especially the section on navigation. I'm curious whether anyone else who has read it has considered how the principles described in the book could be used to improve aviation safety.
Thoughts anyone?

[jolly girl]

Yes, he does go on about fear a bit. What caught my eye (and thoughts) were the sections on mental models (p. 78-82, memories of the future, you see what you expect to see and filter out other information) and navigating when "lost" (p. 154-158) - I thought there might be some interesting applications to CFIT.

[AtoBsafely]

I read it a while ago and found it very interesting; I highly recommend it. It is amazing what some people can achieve in severe situations. We all like to think that we can cope, but there isn't any reliable way to tell without putting yourself in a very stressful situation.

As he points out, survival skills can be learnt and the more you know the better off you will be. But there is no guarantee that you actually will use it when the crunch comes.

The sections you refer to are relevant, but probably don't get past discussion points in CRM/human factors. It would be nice to be capable of simulating the state of being lost - that would teach us something about ourselves!