Originally Posted by
Calabre
During indoc at this new job, they had an interesting presentation about psychology and "lotus of control." Do you believe you control what happens to you? You have internal lotus. Do you believe you have little control, and external variables control your fate, then you are an external lotus person. All this to say, when you fail a checkride, are you the person who says, "If I had just gotten the brake fault message instead of the LH aileron fail, I would have passed," or "my seatfill screwed up the hold, it's not my fault," or "that examiner screwed me." That's an external lotus mindset and it will get you nowhere. Or are you the type of person who says, "What did I mess up? What can I do differently?"
I assume you mean "Locus of Control".
Everybody has some of both. My outlook would be that pilots need to have more internal locus of control.
External locus of control actually has it's place... some things you simply cannot control or influence, and it's counter-productive to worry about them.
"grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed, courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other through"
Originally Posted by
Calabre
This struck a chord with me, and I've been trying to do some serious reflecting as to what I messed up on the checkrides, and what I can do to change it. I have come up with three main areas I need improvement on, and I'd like the advice of anyone who feels they have insight to provide:
#1) My nervousness for checkrides is off the charts, and it's getting worse. I've always been nervous about them, but I haven't had any issues with checkrides until this upgrade. I think it's because it's one thing to surpress your nerves and perform at an FO level, or whatever, but it's another thing to be the center of the show. I need to figure out a way to suppress or compartmentalize my nerves. Any ideas?
Meditation? Meditate on airplane flying scenarios while remaining calm and contemplative?
Originally Posted by
Calabre
#2) My demeanor, lack of leadership, lack of command authority, whatever you want to call it. This is affected by nerves, of course, but I've also always been a quiet, soft spoken person. I need to figure out a way to at least appear more confident, etc. Does anyone have any ideas for leadership courses, or books, etc?
You're a military officer, there are resources there, and you've been exposed to some in training. But you might need practice more than you need theory on this. I have a friend (also mil) who was terminally shy. He did Toast Masters to develop his level of comfort in being the center of attention in a leadership role. I only knew because he told me, so it seemed to work.
Originally Posted by
Calabre
#3) (This may be a hybrid of the first two, but I feel it's worth discussing.) I make odd decisions during these checkrides that I wouldn't do in real life. An example would be a situation in which we know we're diverting. But before I divert I sit there and calculate bingo, even though nobody is telling us to hold (in other words, there is no need to calculate bingo). Why? Who knows?!? Because that's what we did every time in the sim lessons, I guess. Apparently I make my decisions based on what I think the examiner wants to see, rather than what truly pertains to the scenario! My decision making in these events is, like I said, affected by nerves, but I need a way of correctly making a common sense decision, and not overthinking this stuff.
That's checkride-itis. Try hard to focus on what actually needs to be done, based on your assessment. Not what the examiner thinks. Modern LOFT/LOE training allows for variations in method. Entirely possible and likely than an examiner will debrief something he didn't like but he's not likely to actuall fail you on those unless it was a gross safety error. Also you can screw up a variety of minor things, recover and still pass. True for any checkride but especially LOE format.
Originally Posted by
Calabre
Anyone who’s been through Air Force pilot training knows you don’t just coast through unless you have at least some modicum of skill. Hand skills haven’t been the issue, nor knowledge or lack of studying. Checkrides haven’t been an issue either, until this upgrade attempt.
I'd agree. You've flown multiple types.