Stress/Anxiety Driven Accidents

On Monday, March 5, 2018 at 10:36:02 PM UTC-5, wrote:
The professional aviation safety method of incremental exposure to scary stuff to build tolerance for the really scary stuff and a weekend of professional simulator training every 6 months doesn't scale down to us hobby pilots.

Actually it can. The glider flight simulations available today can be used to effectively and repeatedly expose pilots to situations too dangerous to perform in real aircraft. Experience is the key here, and experience is built through repetition. The brain needs to have repeatedly "seen", and therefore learned to recognize, and learned to deal with situations until they seem familiar, and therefore no longer threatening. Early recognition of a situation is key to preventing it from getting any worse.

Simulation is an effective tool in the hands of a competent instructor, but it can also be used as a proficiency maintenance tool by rated pilots serious about their longevity.

Those who would argue a simulation will not produce the same level of stress as occurs in a real aircraft have likely never tried it. The brain cares only about its perceived environment, not its actual environment. If you have ever seen the involuntary physical contortions of someone flying even a desktop simulation, as their brain attempts to resolve what it is seeing on the monitor, you know what I mean. On more than one occasion I have had to wipe the sweat off my desktop joystick after having put someone through a stress-inducing scenario.

The solution lies in the number of times the pilot's brain has seen and dealt with a given situation. Simulation is an effective and efficient way to provide our brains with the requisite number of experiences.

Respectfully submitted for your consideration.

Scott Manley - 3167160CFI-G