THE AIRWAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 859, 31 December 1929, Page 7

THE AIRWAY

(By THE ROC.) MAKE-UP OF GOOD PILOTS

Aviation accidents serve to emphasise the fact that air safety depends not only on the mechanical perfection of the machine, knowledge of atmospheric conditions, etc., but also, in ever-growing proportion upon the capacity of the pilot.

Of course, in Hying, the man and the machine cannot be entirely separated. It a man makes a bad landing, it may be due to the faulty construction of the airplane or to poor visibility. But it is not due to chance ihai numerous well-known pilots have Down so many thousand miles without an accident. There are certain capacities and dualities which a successful pilot must possess, and he must possess them to a finer degree than would be necessary for any other occupation.

Some of these qualities are obvious and were recognised from the start* for instance, the physical requirements. Controlling an airplane requires continued and concentrated effort and ability to resist fatigue: this demands an all-round good physique A pilot must have sharper vision' stronger heart and better muscle control than the average man: he must he able to stand sudden changes in atmospheric pressure, recover quickly from loss of balance and respond instantaneously to momentary stimuli. SHEER HORSE SENSE There is certainly much more than jneets the eye in the often stated fact by instructors that all that is required to make a safe pilot is sheer horse sense. In rather a mild form this was exemplified on Friday morning when one of the Aero Club’s pupils landed on lakapuna Beach. In preference to returning across the harbour through a low cloud bank and conditions which were most unsuitable for safe flying, he chose to make a landing and then communicate with the Mangere Airdrome. The tide was out and Takapuna Beach provided a good landing ground. How many young pilots, through sheer bravado and ignorance, would have tackled the conditions and fun the risk of a bad mishap? Friday's experience was merely an illustration of jfood judgment and the application of common sense. MENTAL TRAITS VITAL Over and above certain physical requirements there are purely mental traits which go to make a. successful pilot. In the air one must do things at very short notice, but even more important than reacting quickly is reacting correctly. There is nothing so fatal as losing one’s head. One of the ways in which psychology can be of help in increasing air safety is in eliminating individuals who are likely to lose their heads when finding themselves in tight situations. Another and even more important one is to discover in advance individuals who by disposition are inclined to get. themselves into tight situations. These factors, we know from the study of automobile accidents, are responsible for the greatest number of fatalities. A man gets into a smash-up not because he is unable to stop his car fast enough, but because he is already so close upon the victim that it is impossible to stop the car. * Among tests which have been made from time to time, there is one for measuring the speed of an individual in reacting. When an. airplane stalls, or in any other way gets out of control, the time it takes the pilot to light it is of tremendous importance, because of the speed at which the plane is travelling or falling. At GO miles an hour, a plane is going at the rate of nearly 100 ft a second, and when we recall that many disasters have been avoided by inches, we can realise how important a difference of even one one-thousandth of a second may be, let alone a tenth or several tenths of a second, which may represent the difference in reaction time between a skiw and a quick individual. A second of test devised by psychologists is n*io which measures an individual's ability to recover his sense of equilibrium when his balance is disturbed. This is constantly happening in flying, not only when the plane is falling or diving, but whenever quick changes in altitude are made. As disturbances in the sense of equilibrium quickly lead to giddiness, persons who cannot stand sudden changes of position or altitude are particularly dangerous at the controls. Such individuals can be weeded out beforehand by means p£ an appropriate test.

A TEST OF EMOTION A third kind of test which has been tried in the selection of aviators is one which essays to measure emotional stability. Its aim is to see how an individual will react under sudden stress or danger. The method consists of subjecting the applicant emotional stimuli; for instance, the sudden discharge of a gun and noting the character of the bodily responses which are known to accompany strong emotions, such as the increase in blood pressure, the amount of body tremor, acceleration ot rate, and others. buch tests were used successfully during the war in the French and kalian armies, and if properly adapted could be of great service in electing individuals who are likely 0 lose their heads when the unexpected happens. * n addition to these special Psychological tests there are others r a more general nature which atwhl?l t 0 size up lhe individual as a “ole. a good pilot is to a large extent born rather than made. A man “/pass high in the separate physical • nu practical tests and yet prove to e a ••dud” as a pilot. Daring, for instance, is a very an Sent . ial Quality in the make-up of Tia*K Viator ’ 1)111 11 ma y border on the Pathological, as the behaviour of >-ome of our stunt flyers clearly indites. A man may risk his life once, ay risk it twice, but when he does t continually, though it be for pay, . e ®ay well suspect some unconA °us suicidal trends. Aviation is Ocularly attractive to individuals 111 *iich * renc *s, an( l while there h be no objection to their becomstunt flyers it is important to l ect them in advance so that they a - v be kept from being licensed °mmercial or public carrier pilots. FUr THER tests required need is now for special tests uw* J ersona lity and temperament r l , Pic k out the unstable and i Messly inclined from the stable j

and dependable, careful type of individual. Such research is pressingly called for, because there is little doubt that within a few years by far the largest percentage of aviation accidents will be due to the human hazard. Already we have passed the halfway mark. More than 50 per cent, of accidents can be definitely ascribed to faulty piloting. Thus a recent French report, analysing more than 2,000 air accidents, tabulates the causes as follow: Errors of piloting, 50 to 55 per cent.; engine trouble, 20 to 25 per cent, atmospheric conditions, 20 per cent. More significant even than the per cent, classification of the general causes of aviation accidents are the figures as regards the type of pilot and the character of the accident involved. Of the 164 fatal accidents in the United States during 1927, more than SO per cent, were among unlicensed pilots; that is, the less rigorously selected as well as less experienced persons. And in the French survey referred to it was found that accidents diagnosed as being due to faulty piloting resulted, relatively, in a considerably greater number of fatalities than those diagnosed as being due to engine trouble and structural defects of the plane, thus showing again the preponderant importance of the human element. This preponderance will necessarily increase as the plane is perfected.