Landing Streaks

Hi Jay;

We have a well known phenomenon in low altitude display work that sounds
like it might just fit your observation. We call it the rote to rote loop.
In our scenario it can be a killer. In yours, probably just something you
want to become aware of as you move through your flying career.
What happens is that a pilot doing the same thing time and time again goes
through different stages of alertness. It isn't necessarily a constant, and
the levels will vary from pilot to pilot.
What happens is that in doing the same thing repeatedly, you begin as a rote
action, then you develop through various stages of improvement and mental
alertness until you peak at some point. At that point you begin what in our
business can be a real killer; a slide into a form of complacency where what
you are doing is so familiar to you that you begin performing again as a
rote function. Slowly....and insidiously....the "outside the box" cues begin
to dissipate. In effect, you're missing things that during the development
process, you were picking up through more focused and intensive
concentration.
In short, when you reach this stage.....and most pilots who fly fairly
consistently will reach this stage.......your performance follows a sine
curve as you react to something and save it......pick up a bit on your
concentration....up your performance level a bit......then slide back into
that complacency again.
Most of the time a pilot can get away with this, as the natural tendency is
to catch these errors before they become catastrophic. The cycle continues
this way through the pilot's career.
Air display pilots are forced to be aware of this and we take steps to avoid
it by constantly keeping our edge through extremely low error allowance
parameter practice sessions.
Even pilots with this extremely high proficiency factor screw up and get
caught in the performance sine curve lower end....i.e...the Thunderbird
Mountain Home Viper crash just recently. Brain fart.....happens to the best
of us. The trick is to keep it down to a low roar. That's why I keep telling
pilots to make EVERY flight...no matter how insignificant and local......a
PRACTICE SESSION!!!!!
Dudley


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:RF%Td.1853$Ze3.1281@attbi_s51...
I've noticed something about my landings over the last few years, and
wondered if you folks have had the same experience?

After my first 100 hours or so, my landings were pretty consistently okay.
A nice one every now and then, adequate ones the rest of the time. Every
now and then a crosswind landing might stress the gear a bit, but nothing
too horrible.

Around 500 hours, I seemed to master the art of the greaser -- if I
really, really worked at it. Most of the time, my landings would be good,
sometimes great.

Now, some 400 hours later, flying about the same frequency throughout (1 -
2 times per week. Around 100 hours per year), my landings seem to run in
streaks where I will be almost perfect, separated by periods where my
landings are good, but not greasers.

What *is* that?

I don't feel any different. The plane is no different. I'm flying just
as often. Weather conditions are similar. I feel like I'm working the
approach just as hard, and in the same way. Yet, *something* is
different.

For example, right now I'm in a streak of near-perfection. I had
passengers on Wednesday that told me they had never landed so smoothly,
ever. Hell, *I* have never landed so smoothly, ever, as a passenger or a
pilot. I've just been rolling them on, in any wind condition. Yet I know
that two months ago, I had a couple of real clunkers that probably had my
passengers wondering if I was really a pilot.

So, what is this phenomenon? Karma? The stars? Blood pressure? Phase
of the moon? It's frustrating to not be able to break down cause and
effect here -- does anyone else notice this?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"