No pilot should get into an airplane totally relaxed. There should
always be an element of stress involved in flying an airplane. It's
working within this normal stress framework that allows a pilot to
function correctly and professionally.

Agree 100%. I've seen friends get so "relaxed" about flying that they
start to forgo little details like "pre-flight" and "checking the
gas". Luckily (so far) without dire results. (I've surprised fellow
pilots by pre-flighting before EVERY flight, even if I just landed
five minutes ago.)

After 13 years in the air, though, I've found myself more relaxed
about flying than I *ever* would have believed possible. Part of this
is due to improved equipment -- GPS wasn't around back then -- but a
lot of it is simply due to experience.

Back when I first got my ticket, each flight was a real adventure,
with butterflies and some trepidation -- Would this plane *really*
hold together long enough for me to make it home? -- and flying (for
me) took an amazing amount of mental planning and effort.

Of course, we were renting some pretty rough equipment back then, so
perhaps my fears weren't entirely unfounded -- but most of my stress
was due to inexperience on my part.

Now, after making a few thousand successful flights, you tend to stop
stressing about the wings falling off. Nowadays, I will fly across
several states with less preparation and stress than I used to put
into a hamburger flight -- so one truly *does* have to guard against
taking this aviation thing too casually.

Every now and then I'll be droning along, fat, dumb and happy at 8500
feet, watching the world unfold beneath my wings, utterly relaxed --
when I will suddenly realize PRECISELY what I am doing. I mean, my
God, I'm a mile and a half STRAIGHT UP, in a vehicle made out of
recycled beer cans, behind a single 1940s-era engine! This is
LUNACY!!

Just like *that* my senses are heightened, my stress level goes back
up (appropriately), and I'm once again operating at peak
efficiency...constantly looking for landing fields, scanning the
engine instruments...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"