".Blueskies." wrote in message
. ..

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...
: One of the first things I do when talking flight safety to pilots is to
tell
: them emphatically that they should NEVER start thinking about themselves
as
: being "safe" pilots. This can lead to a complacency that can become a
vary
: dangerous habit pattern for a pilot. Its far too easy for a pilot who
thinks
: of himself/herself as "safe" to relax and lose that keen desire for the
: constant improvement demanded by flight operations.
: This basic psychology is recognized both in the airline and military
flight
: safety communities.
: The key to flight safety demands that a pilot develop a mental outlook
about
: the flight environment that requires a constant monitoring of
performance.
: This monitoring should be ingrained toward improvement rather than
: maintaining the status quo. In other words, a pilot who thinks of
: himself/herself as being "safe", is generally more susceptible to
accepting
: their level of performance rather than actively seeking to improve it.
: These are subtle factors indeed, as they relate to the flight safety
: picture, and basically amount to a proper attitude toward self
evaluation,
: but absolutely necessary in the development of a sound flight safety
: environment for a pilot.
: You can sum all this up simply by saying that a really safe pilot never
: thinks of himself/herself as being safe, but rather constantly thinking
in
: the context of how to become "safer".
: Dudley Henriques
:


Great post Dudley. It is kind of like always trying to expect the
unexpected, evaluating each approach and landing and
trying to see where you made mistakes and why, listening to the beat of
the engines and the hum of the airstream. To me,
that awareness is what flying is really all about, definitely being in the
'zone' so to speak...

That's it exactly. The perfect mental attitude for a pilot as that relates
to flight safety is one that accepts no standard as being sufficient to
define being "safe" and all standards as simply a standard to be made
better.
Dudley Henriques