Fly the damn aircraft.\u00a0 The instructor who said that to me was a crusty Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot with tens of thousands of hours in the airframe. He shared that despite all the homework, planning, and analysis, as a pilot, you will be thrust into situations where you need to manage the aircraft’s profile and keep the passengers on board safe.\u00a0 Nothing else matters.<\/p>\n
In late 1989, I began my 12-month rotary-wing flight school journey as a newly commissioned lieutenant in the U.S. Army.\u00a0 Our days were spent in the classroom and aircraft, and over that period, we progressed from day to night, as well as instrument and low-terrain flights.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In between these phases of instruction, we were required to complete check rides, during which you are tested on flight maneuvers, aircraft classroom information, and related topics.<\/p>\n
While reading Daniel Kahneman\u2019s Thinking Fast and Slow, <\/em>I began to view my flight school and aviation experience through the lens of agents System 1 and System 2. When operating an aircraft, there are times when you make automatic and quick inputs based on a series of inputs, actions, and reactions. System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort, and generates a limited set of basic assessments.[1]<\/a> Additionally, flying the aircraft requires detailed mental focus, such as measuring the rate of ascent and descent, monitoring airspeed and fuel burn rates, and interacting with other aircraft and control towers over the radios.\u00a0 System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n Despite differences in terrain, weather, or time of day, each check ride has consistent criteria.\u00a0 You will analyze the weather, file a flight plan, and answer questions about aircraft limits and related information.\u00a0 During the actual flight, you will be required to conduct maneuvers to test your piloting abilities while being randomly tested on emergency procedures (EP\u2019s).\u00a0 Those are the wild cards.\u00a0 The \u201cgotchas.\u201d<\/p>\n During my night check ride, I did well in the initial planning phases and the table talk reviewing aircraft limitations. It was a gorgeous, clear evening as we walked the airfield and transitioned to the flying segment. \u00a0After taking off, we had flown about ten minutes toward our training area when the evaluator began asking questions. I felt comfortable flying straight and level as we transitioned between waypoint lights on the ground.<\/p>\n I successfully answered emergency procedure questions with automatic and quick responses. As students, we used many acronyms to assist.\u00a0 I thought we were complete with that portion when he asked another question. \u201cWhat procedure do you follow for an engine fire?\u201d<\/p>\n Associating with System 1, this was an easy and automatic answer we studied frequently. The only difference this time was that the evaluator moved switches like we were having a real engine fire. I glanced at him and said the last command, \u201cTurn the battery switch to the off position.\u201d\u00a0 He casually reached above us to the center console and toggled the switch to the off position.\u00a0 Neither one of my system agents was prepared for what happened next.<\/p>\n Gotcha.<\/p>\n Sunk is gone <\/strong><\/p>\n Over the years, I have been fascinated with the behaviors surrounding risk assessment and investments. Kahneman also analyzes the decision-making process or choices surrounding economics and their rationality.\u00a0 For the past 15 years, our family has had season tickets to the Portland Timbers, the local football club. We had an annual contractual agreement with the club, and the payments were made over six months during the middle of the season. \u00a0A few matches were scheduled during the weeknights, which were more burdensome to attend. \u00a0After a long day at work, my wife and I would discuss whether we should go to the match, and sometimes it would become a moderate debate.<\/p>\n In his book, Kahneman describes this as the Sunk Cost Fallacy. Regardless of whether we attended the match, we were already afflicted by the sunk costs of the season tickets and were throwing good money after bad.[3]<\/a> Essentially, we poured additional funds into something we had already paid for. From my standpoint, we had already paid for the tickets. From an economic perspective, we would incur additional expenses with time, gas, parking, and potential concessions at the match.\u00a0\u00a0 For myself, the Econ living in the land of theory, I viewed this as a discrete project where the money was already gone.\u00a0 For my wife, the Human acting in the real-world moment,[4]<\/a> there was more of an experiential tie to the event and a sense of losing out from not attending.\u00a0 After poor team performances, we often asked ourselves why we bothered to participate, spend the additional money, and waste the evening.\u00a0 We discovered that we were enriched by the time spent together, and it wasn\u2019t driven by attending the matches.\u00a0 This year, the Econ decided not to renew our season tickets and instead reallocated the money to pursue a doctorate.<\/p>\n \u201cTurn the battery back on!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I screamed at the top of my lungs to compensate for the engine’s noise.\u00a0 Everything around me had turned black to match the night sky surrounding us. System 1 barked out instinctively and considered reversing the sequence as an option, or maybe it was just the quick-fix mentality seeking immediate relief.[5]<\/a> Based on the reading, I am not even sure that System 2 existed at that moment.\u00a0 My heart was racing, and all I could envision was the aircraft at 1200 feet buzzing through the sky with no external or internal lights.\u00a0 The aircraft instrumentation was dark, and we had zero communication with no power.\u00a0 Beyond the engine’s roar, I could hear the rotors cutting into the air above us.\u00a0 I could see his arm casually reaching up to toggle the battery switch back on out of the corner of my eye.\u00a0 Instantly, the cockpit lit up, and we could talk over the microphones again.<\/p>\n Over an hour later, we concluded the flight, and on the way back to the hangar, the evaluator congratulated me on a job well done.\u00a0 I passed and was on to the next phase.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow,<\/em> (New York, NY: Farrar, Strous, and Giroux, 2013), 20.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Kahneman, 21.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Kahneman, 345.<\/p>\n