Stress/Anxiety Driven Accidents

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjsws679vx...ents.docx?dl=0

above is a Drop box link to this article for easier reading




March 3,2018

Stress/Anxiety Driven Accidents

For clarity, all references to tunnel vision in this article relate to an
actual visual impairment, where the individual can only properly focus on
objects in a narrow “tunnel-like" field. Sometimes referred to as
"peripheral vision loss" or “reduced visual perception�. Which is
totally different than the mental tunnel vision often inferred to as a
contributing cause in accidents, which can be defined as one’s tendency
to focus on a single goal or point of view.

On a BFR flight in the spring of 2013, I sat in the back seat of a Grob 103
as one of our most respected high time xc pilots silently dealt with what
should have been a simple (simulated) spoilers failed full open landing.
Just prior to turning downwind when the pilot checked his spoilers, I
alerted him to the fact that I was holding the spoilers open to simulate a
mechanical failure. He proceeded to turn downwind at the normal location,
altitude and airspeed, then ask “if he still needed to use some slip
during the landing as previously requested�. I replied “no, you’re
now dealing with a simulated emergency, just make a safe landing on the
airport. (For those unfamiliar with a Grob 103, with full spoilers at 60
kts the rate of descent is close to 1200 feet per minute). Not
surprisingly after a few moments on downwind the pilot became aware of our
rapid altitude loss and without saying anything he immediately turned base.


At this point, I assumed he had given up on the glider runway and was now
planning to land on the closer parallel main runway. Apparently, he could
not see that our L/D was not going to get us to the runway, let alone have
the remaining altitude necessary to then turn finale and land. I refrained
from commenting fully expecting that at any moment he would announce that
he needs to close the spoilers to make a safe landing, but silently he
pressed on seemingly undaunted by the decaying situation. Finally at a
point 200 feet North of the runway half way thru a rapidly descending left
turn to final and with the left tip less than a half wingspan from the
ground. I loudly barked “my glider� as I slammed the spoilers closed,
arrested the descent and leveled the wings to maneuver and land on the
runway then to roll up and stop at the mid field taxiway. I was
dumbfounded and clueless as to how such a qualified pilot could have been
completely oblivious to the fact that he was but a few heartbeats away from
destroying the glider and likely crippling or killing us both. Our post
landing debrief was eye opening to say the least.

question: “when I took the glider how high do you think our left tip was
above the ground�

reply: “I’m not sure but I thought we were ok and maybe fifty feet
above the ground�

question: “at the moment I took the glider, where were you looking�

reply: he raised his right hand putting his thumb and index finger
together to make circle to look thru and stated “I was looking at where I
wanted to go on the runway and it was like I was looking thru a tube�

question: “did you feel like you were stressed during that landing�

reply: “I definitely had a lot of anxiety�

His description of seemingly looking thru a tube, sounded remarkably
similar to what I had experienced back in 1988 on one of my first glider
rides. A local pilot wanted to fly the Grob 103 from the back seat, so I
went along as front seat ballast. Briefly into his second consecutive
loop, I was surprised when my peripheral vision collapsed to the point that
all I could see was the instrument panel. Having read about g-induced
tunnel vision, greying out, and eventual blacking out, I tried pushing the
blood back up to my eyes by tightening the muscles in my legs and abdomen.
Magically it worked, and my vision immediately opened back up to normal.


In 2013 when this pilot described the visual limitation of seemingly
looking thru a tube. I began a research project into learning about what I
believed must be a connection between tunnel vision and accidents. While
there are there are numerous medical, biological or environmental
conditions that can cause tunnel vision. Research shows that the anxiety,
stress and fear, pilots feel when they perceive they are facing a
life-threatening event, triggers the hypothalamus to activate two systems:
the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system. The first
phase of this is what is known as the fight or flight response
(interestingly in some individuals it’s actually an or freeze response).
The stress hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin from the adrenal medulla
along with approximately 30 hormones from the adrenal cortex enter the
blood stream. The heart rate and blood pressure rise, preparing the body
to deal with the threat. With a heart rate elevated to 115-145 BPM,
complex motor skills, visual reaction times and cognitive reaction times
are at their peak. However, between 145-175 mental and physical
performance begins to suffer dramatically. Tunnel vision, loss of
peripheral vision, loss of depth perception, auditory exclusion, the
slowing down or speeding up of time as well a decay in complex motor skills
are common. At heart rates above 175 BPM even a well-trained combatant
experiences a catastrophic break down of mental and physical performance
and most combatants experience bladder and bowl voiding.

I realize that lacking any name recognition in the soaring community this
article may well fall on deaf ears. I believe the best I can hope for is
that some small percentage of pilots and instructors, will be intrigued
enough to do their own research on this subject. If they see the value in
it, they will start a grass roots movement to have it pushed thru and
addressed at a national level.

For those pilots who believe they are too good to be susceptible to this
phenomenon. Best wishes

For those pilots who believe they quite susceptible to this issue. Seek
out an exceptional instructor who can challenge your skills and expand your
comfort level with diverse training

I believe that shedding light on what should be a serious safety concern
for all pilots, was an important first step.

Learn to recognize your signs of stress/anxiety, practice tactical
breathing as an aid in calming down.

Take corrective action immediately when available to mitigate the
stressor.

During landings learn to consciously and regularly look left and right
during the approach to help prevent or brake tunnel vision. Verbalizing
what you see and your intentions (even when solo) helps prevent tunnel
vision.

Invest in a wearable heart rate monitor and use it regularly to gauge your
own stress levels, pay special attention to its recording following
emergency training or off field landings. Lend it to other fellow pilots.


This age of technology provides us with a slew of wearable heart rate
monitors, some relatively cheap and some rather exotic and expensive.
There are watches available that constantly display current heart rate,
record your daily heart rate information, have settable alarms and even
blue tooth to smart phones that display current heart rate information.
The FitBit AltaHR is but one of numerous wearable wrist band heart rate
monitors that send continuous current heart rate to an Iphone. Most
instructors would value being able to have some real insight into their
students stress levels during flight training, particularly during
emergency maneuvers. Viewing pertinent data post flight could be an
invaluable tool for the student and instructor.

I give John Cochran credit for being willing to voice his opinions
regarding contest safety issues. Maybe he can convince some contest pilots
to wear heart rate monitors, so there can be some hard data to share
regarding pilot stress levels during low saves.

Having been involved as a soaring FBO, instructor and examiner for over a
quarter century. I always took great pride in the fact that I provided
students a level of training that assured their safety, as opposed to just
meeting the FAA’s published minimums. I slept well at night, knowing I
should never have a student come thru the door in a wheel chair and ask
“why didn’t you teach me about that�. This article is my final
installment in that process.

Get high, go far, go fast and come home safe.

Marty Eiler

Marty,

That's good stuff. As a police instructor I spend a fair amount of time training recruits and officers about what happens to the body/mind under high stress. Tunnel vision and auditory exclusion are two of the most common things reported by officers who have been involved in shootings or other life and death situations. It only makes sense that the officer's attention is narrowly focused on what is about to kill him (e.g. the gun in the suspects hand). I never considered the opposite where the focus is on salvation - the runway in your scenario but it makes perfect sense.

At the range we train officers to do an exaggerated scan after each string of fire in order to break the tunnel vision, just as you describe. Hopefully, when under stress, they will do as they were trained. It is important to do this type of training from the beginning, whether shooting or flying. History has shown that the "law of primacy" takes over when under extreme stress. That is to say, one automatically reverts to the way they were first trained, whether that training was right or wrong. It is difficult to "untrain" bad initial training even with repeated remediation. For example, there are instances of officers raising their non-shooting hand in the midst of a gunfight when their weapons malfunctioned because that's what they were taught to do when they first learned to shoot.

Stress inoculation training is what we do to prepare officers for conflict. Role players, paintball type guns and various scenarios are eye opening events for trainers and trainees, alike. Repeated exposure to this type of training results in better tactics and decision making. In the aviation world simulators have an important role. Maybe someone can (or already has) create a bunch of emergency scenarios for Condor. If its good for airline pilots, it ought to be good for us.

Finally, along with the other side effects of extreme stress there is what has been called the "jangle effect". This is the inability to carry on dialogue, even internally. Officers have reported the inability to "get the words out" on the radio or to their partners. Doing even simple calculations like glide ratios can also be quite difficult. If there is time, consciously controlling your breathing can help with this. I really like your idea of having a student (or any pilot) actually speak out loud as he is making decisions. It lets you know the decision making process that is going on and, if things get quiet, you now there might be a problem. I often find myself talking out loud as I prepare for landing.

Keep up the good work and thanks for your contributions.

Marty Eiler,

Thank you for a thought provoking article. I know some students exhibit more stress than others but I hadn't thought about how it brings on "tunnel vision". This insight now lets me understand why some students have trouble seeing the bigger picture of what is happening during the landing process or other maneuver.

During the debrief, I will now ask "What were you seeing when _______."

During a debrief, I've been telling students what to correct based on what I was seeing. The better approach is to understand what they were seeing and why they took a particular action. If "tunnel vision" is a factor, a different teaching approach is required.

Thoughtfully,
Chuck Zabinski

On Saturday, March 3, 2018 at 6:30:09 AM UTC-5, soarin wrote:

On a BFR flight in the spring of 2013, I sat in the back seat of a Grob 103
as one of our most respected high time xc pilots silently dealt with what
should have been a simple (simulated) spoilers failed full open landing.

Back in 2011, I was a student glider pilot. Standing on the field I watched 'one of our most respected high time xc pilots' fail to respond correctly to a 'simulated rope break' at 300 AGL during his Flight Review. I watched the glider enter an incipient spin and disappear behind a line of trees. To my untrained eye, it looked to be flying straight down.

The CFI recovered from the dive at the very last second, flared, rolled uphill about 50 feet, and put a wing tip down to ground loop (to avert collision with an immovable object). Wing spar bent. No injuries. That was the pilot-under-review's last flight in a glider.

I will probably never be a respected high time XC pilot, but when it comes time hang up my wings, I sincerely hope that I quit BEFORE I kill a flight instructor, a tow pilot, or anyone else.

On Saturday, March 3, 2018 at 7:49:48 PM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:


Back in 2011, I was a student glider pilot. Standing on the field I watched 'one of our most respected high time xc pilots'

Dig into the history on that one, and it will not seem so surprising.

best,
Evan Ludeman / T8

In every BFR I am asking the instructor to perform emergency scenarios without discussing them with me first (at a safe altitude of course).
It has much more value in my opinion than practicing emergencies which were rehearsed on the ground. In real emergency there is no warning, and we should be trained to handle real emergencies. The instructor should wait long enough to give the student a chance to react before taking over. I trust that Marty did not really wait till the last second to react, even if it sounded that way.
I believe tunnel vision is the cause for most accidents, and not lack of training. Otherwise we wouldn’t have so many accidents with experience pilots on the controls, including instructors. One way to look at tunnel vision is the opposite of armchair quarterback. The picture is much clearer when one is not stressed or fixated on a single task, so we all tend to believe this could not happen to us.

Ramy

On Saturday, March 3, 2018 at 1:14:38 PM UTC-8, wrote:

During a debrief, I've been telling students what to correct based on what I was seeing. The better
approach is to understand what they were seeing and why they took a particular action. If "tunnel
vision" is a factor, a different teaching approach is required.

There's likely something interesting or unique near the approach end of the runway. Ask the student if they saw it. And shortly after the student has "mastered" landings, ask them to look at things to the sides while on final. How else will they be able to react to a runway incursion and land at a different spot.

5Z

As a long time instructor I'll concur with the stress induced performance failure(s).

One other point that is really relevant here - as an instructor we have to ensure that we don't place the student on a pedestal thinking that he/she is a "top" competition pilot or the wisest and most experienced pelican around so "of course he/she knows what they are doing, I'll just assume...." and sit back while they auger it in.

An experienced instructor can tell pretty quickly in a simulated (or actual I guess) emergency or abnormal situation if the pilot understands, is coping well and if the situation is going to end wrong. It is incumbent on the instructor to allow the lesson to be learned without allowing the end result be in question. Always a tough balancing act but I know from experience, it doesn't matter how much of a "top gun" pilot this student is - she/he might be rusty, out of practice on these maneuvers/procedures, might have developed bad habits, might be used to flying a different glider (maybe only one ship for many years only getting out of it once every two years for a flight review), flies a 50:1 glider normally and is doing the review in a 34:1 ship, maybe is not used to flying with someone else, may have had a massive stroke on base leg - whatever the cause the CFI has to be on their game and prevent a horrible end result.

I know of too many of these stories that end badly, have had some scares myself. Seen it in power, gliders, commercial operations - it's a "gotcha" for the instructor.

I think very carefully at the purpose of each maneuver, the risk/benefit, the value of the teaching moment and the entire battlespace - what is happening in the pattern and so on. High risk, low reward simulated failures have to be analyzed, managed and often after evaluating are probably not worth it. We used to do some really macho stuff in multi-engine training years ago that killed quite a few people both in training and then in practice - most of us learned and adapted.

Regards, Tom

On Saturday, March 3, 2018 at 3:30:09 AM UTC-8, soarin wrote:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjsws679vx...ents.docx?dl=0

above is a Drop box link to this article for easier reading




March 3,2018

Stress/Anxiety Driven Accidents

For clarity, all references to tunnel vision in this article relate to an
actual visual impairment, where the individual can only properly focus on
objects in a narrow “tunnel-like" field. Sometimes referred to as
"peripheral vision loss" or “reduced visual perception�. Which is
totally different than the mental tunnel vision often inferred to as a
contributing cause in accidents, which can be defined as one’s tendency
to focus on a single goal or point of view.

On a BFR flight in the spring of 2013, I sat in the back seat of a Grob 103
as one of our most respected high time xc pilots silently dealt with what
should have been a simple (simulated) spoilers failed full open landing.
Just prior to turning downwind when the pilot checked his spoilers, I
alerted him to the fact that I was holding the spoilers open to simulate a
mechanical failure. He proceeded to turn downwind at the normal location,
altitude and airspeed, then ask “if he still needed to use some slip
during the landing as previously requested�. I replied “no, you’re
now dealing with a simulated emergency, just make a safe landing on the
airport. (For those unfamiliar with a Grob 103, with full spoilers at 60
kts the rate of descent is close to 1200 feet per minute). Not
surprisingly after a few moments on downwind the pilot became aware of our
rapid altitude loss and without saying anything he immediately turned base.


At this point, I assumed he had given up on the glider runway and was now
planning to land on the closer parallel main runway. Apparently, he could
not see that our L/D was not going to get us to the runway, let alone have
the remaining altitude necessary to then turn finale and land. I refrained
from commenting fully expecting that at any moment he would announce that
he needs to close the spoilers to make a safe landing, but silently he
pressed on seemingly undaunted by the decaying situation. Finally at a
point 200 feet North of the runway half way thru a rapidly descending left
turn to final and with the left tip less than a half wingspan from the
ground. I loudly barked “my glider� as I slammed the spoilers closed,
arrested the descent and leveled the wings to maneuver and land on the
runway then to roll up and stop at the mid field taxiway. I was
dumbfounded and clueless as to how such a qualified pilot could have been
completely oblivious to the fact that he was but a few heartbeats away from
destroying the glider and likely crippling or killing us both. Our post
landing debrief was eye opening to say the least.

question: “when I took the glider how high do you think our left tip was
above the ground�

reply: “I’m not sure but I thought we were ok and maybe fifty feet
above the ground�

question: “at the moment I took the glider, where were you looking�

reply: he raised his right hand putting his thumb and index finger
together to make circle to look thru and stated “I was looking at where I
wanted to go on the runway and it was like I was looking thru a tube�

question: “did you feel like you were stressed during that landing�

reply: “I definitely had a lot of anxiety�

His description of seemingly looking thru a tube, sounded remarkably
similar to what I had experienced back in 1988 on one of my first glider
rides. A local pilot wanted to fly the Grob 103 from the back seat, so I
went along as front seat ballast. Briefly into his second consecutive
loop, I was surprised when my peripheral vision collapsed to the point that
all I could see was the instrument panel. Having read about g-induced
tunnel vision, greying out, and eventual blacking out, I tried pushing the
blood back up to my eyes by tightening the muscles in my legs and abdomen..
Magically it worked, and my vision immediately opened back up to normal.


In 2013 when this pilot described the visual limitation of seemingly
looking thru a tube. I began a research project into learning about what I
believed must be a connection between tunnel vision and accidents. While
there are there are numerous medical, biological or environmental
conditions that can cause tunnel vision. Research shows that the anxiety,
stress and fear, pilots feel when they perceive they are facing a
life-threatening event, triggers the hypothalamus to activate two systems:
the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system. The first
phase of this is what is known as the fight or flight response
(interestingly in some individuals it’s actually an or freeze response).
The stress hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin from the adrenal medulla
along with approximately 30 hormones from the adrenal cortex enter the
blood stream. The heart rate and blood pressure rise, preparing the body
to deal with the threat. With a heart rate elevated to 115-145 BPM,
complex motor skills, visual reaction times and cognitive reaction times
are at their peak. However, between 145-175 mental and physical
performance begins to suffer dramatically. Tunnel vision, loss of
peripheral vision, loss of depth perception, auditory exclusion, the
slowing down or speeding up of time as well a decay in complex motor skills
are common. At heart rates above 175 BPM even a well-trained combatant
experiences a catastrophic break down of mental and physical performance
and most combatants experience bladder and bowl voiding.

I realize that lacking any name recognition in the soaring community this
article may well fall on deaf ears. I believe the best I can hope for is
that some small percentage of pilots and instructors, will be intrigued
enough to do their own research on this subject. If they see the value in
it, they will start a grass roots movement to have it pushed thru and
addressed at a national level.

For those pilots who believe they are too good to be susceptible to this
phenomenon. Best wishes

For those pilots who believe they quite susceptible to this issue. Seek
out an exceptional instructor who can challenge your skills and expand your
comfort level with diverse training

I believe that shedding light on what should be a serious safety concern
for all pilots, was an important first step.

Learn to recognize your signs of stress/anxiety, practice tactical
breathing as an aid in calming down.

Take corrective action immediately when available to mitigate the
stressor.

During landings learn to consciously and regularly look left and right
during the approach to help prevent or brake tunnel vision. Verbalizing
what you see and your intentions (even when solo) helps prevent tunnel
vision.

Invest in a wearable heart rate monitor and use it regularly to gauge your
own stress levels, pay special attention to its recording following
emergency training or off field landings. Lend it to other fellow pilots..


This age of technology provides us with a slew of wearable heart rate
monitors, some relatively cheap and some rather exotic and expensive.
There are watches available that constantly display current heart rate,
record your daily heart rate information, have settable alarms and even
blue tooth to smart phones that display current heart rate information.
The FitBit AltaHR is but one of numerous wearable wrist band heart rate
monitors that send continuous current heart rate to an Iphone. Most
instructors would value being able to have some real insight into their
students stress levels during flight training, particularly during
emergency maneuvers. Viewing pertinent data post flight could be an
invaluable tool for the student and instructor.

I give John Cochran credit for being willing to voice his opinions
regarding contest safety issues. Maybe he can convince some contest pilots
to wear heart rate monitors, so there can be some hard data to share
regarding pilot stress levels during low saves.

Having been involved as a soaring FBO, instructor and examiner for over a
quarter century. I always took great pride in the fact that I provided
students a level of training that assured their safety, as opposed to just
meeting the FAA’s published minimums. I slept well at night, knowing I
should never have a student come thru the door in a wheel chair and ask
“why didn’t you teach me about that�. This article is my final
installment in that process.

Get high, go far, go fast and come home safe.

Marty Eiler

While the article is about a physical phenomenon, the sequence started with a poorly planned approach, did it not? Entering downwind before having checked the operation of the spoilers, too low to reach the runway if they stick open - apparently as normal practice.

The physical phenomena of tunnel vision is involuntary, one of the best remedies must surely be to avoid stimulating it. Leaving more margin for error and the unknown is probably the best way to do that. Perhaps better that a heart rate monitor for this pilot is a good landing checklist. It should be completed well before turning downwind, and include a spoiler check - spoilers open, look left and right and confirm open, spoilers closed, look left and right and confirm closed.

On Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 6:45:53 PM UTC+3, jfitch wrote:
On Saturday, March 3, 2018 at 3:30:09 AM UTC-8, soarin wrote:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjsws679vx...ents.docx?dl=0

above is a Drop box link to this article for easier reading




March 3,2018

Stress/Anxiety Driven Accidents

For clarity, all references to tunnel vision in this article relate to an
actual visual impairment, where the individual can only properly focus on
objects in a narrow “tunnel-like" field. Sometimes referred to as
"peripheral vision loss" or “reduced visual perception�.. Which is
totally different than the mental tunnel vision often inferred to as a
contributing cause in accidents, which can be defined as one’s tendency
to focus on a single goal or point of view.

On a BFR flight in the spring of 2013, I sat in the back seat of a Grob 103
as one of our most respected high time xc pilots silently dealt with what
should have been a simple (simulated) spoilers failed full open landing..
Just prior to turning downwind when the pilot checked his spoilers, I
alerted him to the fact that I was holding the spoilers open to simulate a
mechanical failure. He proceeded to turn downwind at the normal location,
altitude and airspeed, then ask “if he still needed to use some slip
during the landing as previously requested�. I replied “no, you’re
now dealing with a simulated emergency, just make a safe landing on the
airport. (For those unfamiliar with a Grob 103, with full spoilers at 60
kts the rate of descent is close to 1200 feet per minute). Not
surprisingly after a few moments on downwind the pilot became aware of our
rapid altitude loss and without saying anything he immediately turned base.


At this point, I assumed he had given up on the glider runway and was now
planning to land on the closer parallel main runway. Apparently, he could
not see that our L/D was not going to get us to the runway, let alone have
the remaining altitude necessary to then turn finale and land. I refrained
from commenting fully expecting that at any moment he would announce that
he needs to close the spoilers to make a safe landing, but silently he
pressed on seemingly undaunted by the decaying situation. Finally at a
point 200 feet North of the runway half way thru a rapidly descending left
turn to final and with the left tip less than a half wingspan from the
ground. I loudly barked “my glider� as I slammed the spoilers closed,
arrested the descent and leveled the wings to maneuver and land on the
runway then to roll up and stop at the mid field taxiway. I was
dumbfounded and clueless as to how such a qualified pilot could have been
completely oblivious to the fact that he was but a few heartbeats away from
destroying the glider and likely crippling or killing us both. Our post
landing debrief was eye opening to say the least.

question: “when I took the glider how high do you think our left tip was
above the ground�

reply: “I’m not sure but I thought we were ok and maybe fifty feet
above the ground�

question: “at the moment I took the glider, where were you looking�

reply: he raised his right hand putting his thumb and index finger
together to make circle to look thru and stated “I was looking at where I
wanted to go on the runway and it was like I was looking thru a tube�

question: “did you feel like you were stressed during that landing�

reply: “I definitely had a lot of anxiety�

His description of seemingly looking thru a tube, sounded remarkably
similar to what I had experienced back in 1988 on one of my first glider
rides. A local pilot wanted to fly the Grob 103 from the back seat, so I
went along as front seat ballast. Briefly into his second consecutive
loop, I was surprised when my peripheral vision collapsed to the point that
all I could see was the instrument panel. Having read about g-induced
tunnel vision, greying out, and eventual blacking out, I tried pushing the
blood back up to my eyes by tightening the muscles in my legs and abdomen.
Magically it worked, and my vision immediately opened back up to normal..


In 2013 when this pilot described the visual limitation of seemingly
looking thru a tube. I began a research project into learning about what I
believed must be a connection between tunnel vision and accidents. While
there are there are numerous medical, biological or environmental
conditions that can cause tunnel vision. Research shows that the anxiety,
stress and fear, pilots feel when they perceive they are facing a
life-threatening event, triggers the hypothalamus to activate two systems:
the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system. The first
phase of this is what is known as the fight or flight response
(interestingly in some individuals it’s actually an or freeze response).
The stress hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin from the adrenal medulla
along with approximately 30 hormones from the adrenal cortex enter the
blood stream. The heart rate and blood pressure rise, preparing the body
to deal with the threat. With a heart rate elevated to 115-145 BPM,
complex motor skills, visual reaction times and cognitive reaction times
are at their peak. However, between 145-175 mental and physical
performance begins to suffer dramatically. Tunnel vision, loss of
peripheral vision, loss of depth perception, auditory exclusion, the
slowing down or speeding up of time as well a decay in complex motor skills
are common. At heart rates above 175 BPM even a well-trained combatant
experiences a catastrophic break down of mental and physical performance
and most combatants experience bladder and bowl voiding.

I realize that lacking any name recognition in the soaring community this
article may well fall on deaf ears. I believe the best I can hope for is
that some small percentage of pilots and instructors, will be intrigued
enough to do their own research on this subject. If they see the value in
it, they will start a grass roots movement to have it pushed thru and
addressed at a national level.

For those pilots who believe they are too good to be susceptible to this
phenomenon. Best wishes

For those pilots who believe they quite susceptible to this issue. Seek
out an exceptional instructor who can challenge your skills and expand your
comfort level with diverse training

I believe that shedding light on what should be a serious safety concern
for all pilots, was an important first step.

Learn to recognize your signs of stress/anxiety, practice tactical
breathing as an aid in calming down.

Take corrective action immediately when available to mitigate the
stressor.

During landings learn to consciously and regularly look left and right
during the approach to help prevent or brake tunnel vision. Verbalizing
what you see and your intentions (even when solo) helps prevent tunnel
vision.

Invest in a wearable heart rate monitor and use it regularly to gauge your
own stress levels, pay special attention to its recording following
emergency training or off field landings. Lend it to other fellow pilots.


This age of technology provides us with a slew of wearable heart rate
monitors, some relatively cheap and some rather exotic and expensive.
There are watches available that constantly display current heart rate,
record your daily heart rate information, have settable alarms and even
blue tooth to smart phones that display current heart rate information.
The FitBit AltaHR is but one of numerous wearable wrist band heart rate
monitors that send continuous current heart rate to an Iphone. Most
instructors would value being able to have some real insight into their
students stress levels during flight training, particularly during
emergency maneuvers. Viewing pertinent data post flight could be an
invaluable tool for the student and instructor.

I give John Cochran credit for being willing to voice his opinions
regarding contest safety issues. Maybe he can convince some contest pilots
to wear heart rate monitors, so there can be some hard data to share
regarding pilot stress levels during low saves.

Having been involved as a soaring FBO, instructor and examiner for over a
quarter century. I always took great pride in the fact that I provided
students a level of training that assured their safety, as opposed to just
meeting the FAA’s published minimums. I slept well at night, knowing I
should never have a student come thru the door in a wheel chair and ask
“why didn’t you teach me about that�. This article is my final
installment in that process.

Get high, go far, go fast and come home safe.

Marty Eiler

While the article is about a physical phenomenon, the sequence started with a poorly planned approach, did it not? Entering downwind before having checked the operation of the spoilers, too low to reach the runway if they stick open - apparently as normal practice.

Checking the spoilers *before* you're on downwind, probably even further away from the airfield, does not improve the situation if they stick open.

You only want to check the spoilers after you are in spoilers-stuck-open range of a landable place on the field. Which, I would suggest, means you're not only already on downwind, but you've preferably got a decent amount of the field behind your wing, so you have the option of turning 90 degrees towards the field immediately, and then deciding based on how the sight picture is changing whether you are now on base, or on a crosswind final.

If the spoilers are stuck closed then you still have plenty of time to widen your downwind and/or extend it to execute a slipping approach.