A low pressure system moved through our area over the last few days and its attendant cold front finally moved through ushering in cold, strong, gusty winds. I checked the local airport’s automated weather station and the winds we 22 gusting to 31 out of the west and the ceiling at the time was a steady 400 foot overcast.
Such winds and cloud make for a busy instrument landing in a small airplane, especially if the winds favor a runway at the airport that is not serviced by a instrument approach. In most cases you can still land on that runway, but you must circle to land from a runway that has a published approach. A newly rated instrument pilot might have to work hard at controlling his emotions during such a challenge, yet given sufficient time and experience, the fears give way to a more relaxed state of being.
I was reading Robert Buck’s Weather Flying yesterday evening and I came across a passage that, properly applied, would make anyone a better pilot if not more effective in life in general. Mr. Buck said:
Sometimes a pilot has to take a firm grip on emotions, forcing oneself to control a nervous stomach and shaking hand. This isn’t always easy, and anyone who says they’ve never been scared flying in weather either isn’t telling the truth or hasn’t been there!
…When everything inside of us is scared, we have to work harder to do a good precise job of flying, thinking rationally all the time. In this situation a pilot must do the utmost to be relaxed. Being relaxed creates better flying and better thinking and reduces fatigue. So even if hell’s fire and brimstone are all around, we must keep reminding ourselves to sit back comfortably, relax those white knuckles on the control wheel and think! It isn’t easy, but it’s possible; and working on it, forcing oneself, and practicing make it possible. Surprisingly enough, this effort can develop a control over our emotions that favorably affects the nonflying part of our lives…
You can overcome most fears by meeting them face-to-face when they arise. While pilots rarely encounter circumstances that are sufficiently dire to merit a genuine fear response, they do come up and when they do, they are almost always valuable learning experiences.
“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” ~ Edmund Burke
Gregory Hake 
Our daily living is also the perfect canvas to be in position to handle a dangerous situation if it arises. If we can meet the subtle fears we let control our lives (of success, failure, loss, etc.), we will have built a muscle that will serve us well in the future.
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Fear can have a paralytic effect, but it can also galvanize increased focus. This is certainly an area where deliberation can develop a vital habit.
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Practicing stressful situations also helps with handling things like this when they come up. Even reading about it and mentally visualizing your response helps. It all allows you to learn how to control the parasympathetic nervous system. The fight or flight response is not too helpful when you are in a small cockpit high over an uninhabited area in harsh weather. The bodie’s usual responses of tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, fast pulse, etc. are the exact opposite of what is the best for these scenarios, and the only way to really get around it is to train your response to minimize it. I think that is really part of the self-discipline as well; the self-discipline to put the work in before the emergency happens.
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Fear is mankinds cheapest and most effective weapon. Interesting post. Thanks.
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The first time you face fear and don’t crumble is a fortifying experience. I always say to myself that this will pass and has a better chance of not being a disaster if I cool my anxieties and think. Panic, even if it is only in your mind is devastating to any rational thought.
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