about good habits

There are many good habits in aviation that, if we cultivate them, can literally save our lives.

Have you heard me say : „you look for your bad weather route in good weather“? This is basically the same principle.

We practice for the serious situations during not so serious everyday situations. This of course applies to other parts of our lives as well, but for now let’s speak about good habits in aviation.

In daily routine operations it is very obvious that many procedures and details could easily be omitted and you would still get the job done. Maybe even much easier. For example, during the altimeter check, why should I check the airport elevation on a published chart when I fly out of this airport every day and just know the ramp is at 872 feet MSL?

Why should I include the minimum diversion fuel in the approach briefing, even if I kind of know that I will not divert today?

Why should I go through the pain and selecting appropriate charts and perform a proper descent briefing, even if I know the terrain below and have been to this place many times? Why going through all the steps to check my landing distance if I know it is not critical today?

The reason is: 

By doing the right things regularly, we create paths in our brain that get easier and easier to walk every day. If we manage to chose to not give in to the resistance of our internal laziness… and instead push ourselves to do things the right way, even if we could easily get away with cutting some slack here and there… then we build a very solid foundation of good habits that will make our flying much safer and more enjoyable in the long run. Because, when the stress level rises, we will revert to those paths in our brains that have been used most of the time. 

So if you only grab the before landing checklist when your examiner is sitting next to you, and the rest of the year you don’t bother, chances are that you also will not use it when the day comes where you attempt to land gear up.

If you only really look for the three green lights when someone else is watching, and otherwise just read the list and not consciously look at the items („lip service…), then you are not building these good habits and eventually this will bite you in the ass.

Why are some pilots afraid of routine line check flights and others are not? Chances are, the pilots who are not terrified, fly the same way they would fly in a check flight in their every day operations. And for those, it will be much easier to do the right things, because they have created an „Autobahn“ in their brains for the good things. 

So we learn to trust ourselves to do the right things, even if nobody is watching, simply by DOING them right, every day, even if nobody is watching.  Even if someone who has not read this article may call you an uncool OCD nerd. Believe me, this discipline pays off, because we become more and more trustful towards ourselves every time we resist the urge to cut a corner and instead do it the right way.

I completely admit that it is absolutely essential for some, if not all of us, to understand WHY some actions and procedures are considered the right way. So please always question the why, ask your training department or the one who taught you. Do research. But don’t just dismiss something because YOU don’t understand YET.

For once you truly understand that every little step you take today to build good habits will one day safe your life, you become what I call a „self educating pilot“. Someone who WANTS to do it right, not MUST…

And this true understanding helps to stand against our internal laziness and walk the extra mile until our good habits are so deeply ingrained within us that they hardly cost us any effort anymore.

Especially in the general aviation, where we have much more freedom, are often flying single pilot, it is not possible to create this attitude by external pressure, like it is possible in some airlines. In our world, we are dependent on our own inner structure, our own integrity and our own motivation to stand up against the „beast within“ ourselves. 

I trust this article finds you when you need it and that my words serve you well during your flying career!

Christian Weidner