Life Lessons From Cockpit

Problems manifest themselves in many forms and can crop up unexpectedly. They can be major or minor problems and when they surface, how do we react and deal with them? Well these are basically the steps that pilots take to deal with them that we can use to deal with life problems as well.

React to the situation

When there is a problem, the first thing that pilots do is to react to the problem by taking control of the situation, which is to fly the aircraft and to have the aircraft safely under control. Likewise when faced with a problem in our life, the first thing that we need to do is to remain calm and take control of the situation. Remain focused with what we are doing and our purpose in life and always remember our goals or our final destination.
Do not try to solve the problem immediately, and do not be overwhelmed by it.

Analyse the problem

The next thing that pilots do is to analyse the problem to determine what sort of problem it is. They categorise problems into procedural or operational problems. Procedural problems are problems that are easier to handle. They have set rules and checklists that the pilots have to follow in order to solve the problem.

In life these are simple problems that we have experienced before or it could be someone else’s problems that were shared with us and therefore we could use the same template or we could modify or create our own template in solving similar problems.

Operational problems are complex problems that do not have any checklist or set procedures to solve them. The types of problems are not clearly defined at first glance and that is why we need to remain calm at first and to clearly define the problem before coming up with the various options and solutions.

Act

Once the pilots have generated a few options they then act on it. This is the easiest thing to do, however before they could act on it, they would have gone through each and every option, looking at the pros and cons and asking what if’s. A similar concept can be applied when faced with problems in life. We have to look at the various options that are available to us and to evaluate each and every one of them and come up with the most optimal, under the circumstances.

Review

After selecting the most optimal option based on the circumstances then, the pilots do not just sit and wait for the outcome. They will continue to review their actions, as any new information received could invalidate their earlier decision and when this happens they would have to start all over again, that is to re-analyse the problem by looking for more information and generating new options and solutions based on the latest information. This will go on till the flight arrives at the destination.

Likewise with life’s problems, after acting on it, we have to constantly review our decision, look for new and fresh leads or information that could invalidate our earlier decision. This phase will have to be repeated on a regular basis until the problem is overcome.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Tags: Decision Making, Lessons learned from cockpit, Problem Solving

Throughout and during our journey in life we will be faced with numerous problems. Some are big problems requiring much time and efforts to solve whilst some are relatively smaller problems, requiring lesser efforts. As long as problems beset us, they will cause continuing difficulties and could hinder our journey in life. We have to solve them and we can learn how, by learning how pilots solve problems in the cockpit.

Pilots are trained to solve problems and to make decisions. In fact from the time that they report for work until the end of the flight, pilots are expected to solve any problems and to make decisions pertaining to the flight.

Throughout their career pilots go through various training programs in the classrooms, in the simulator as well as on the actual aircraft to equip themselves with the necessary skills, knowledge and tools to be able to solve problems during flight. In the simulator they will be subject to various problems, from the simple to the most complex of problems. In fact any problems that one could possible think of will be given to them to deal with. And because they are well trained for this and they do this so often in the course of their work, they become good at it.

Sad to say in life we are not trained nor taught in a similar way on how to deal with problems. As such how many of us can actually deal with our problems? Most of the time we refer to someone with more experience like our parents or our elders and seek their advice. Some of us even seek consultation from professionals. Not many of us know how to deal with many of life problems.

We can however acquire the right skills and tools by learning from pilots and looking at how they handle problems. In my next posting of life lessons from the cockpit, I will detail steps taken by pilots when faced with problems during flight.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Tags: Decision Making, Lessons learned from cockpit, Problem Solving, Simulators, Training

How often do we see people wandering around in life and going through life without any sense or purpose? Some will get swayed or side tracked and not achieving what they have set out to do. Some get into trouble and are unable to find the right path to continue on life’s journey. I have seen it many times. So what can we learn from the cockpit’s discipline to help us stay on course?

Well in this life lessons from the cockpit, I will describe to you the similarities between our life’s journey and the aircraft’s, what the pilots do to ensure the aircraft stays on track and ultimately reaches its destination.

The first thing a pilot does when he is in the cockpit is to go through the technical log of the aircraft to determine unserviceable items. This is necessary as the unserviceable items could impose some limitations on the flight. He then initializes the aircraft’s position, which is telling the aircraft where it is with regards to the environment. In life, this is akin to us knowing ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses and our limitations. These are necessary information as without knowing our own limitations, we might be doing things beyond our capabilities and setting goals in life far beyond our own capabilities at that time and therefore unachievable.

The next step is to tell the aircraft its destination. After telling the aircraft where its destination is, the pilot then programs the route of the journey inside the onboard computers. Similarly, before we can embark on our journey in life, we have to know our destination; what is it that we want in our life. Once we know what we want in life, we can then make plans on how to achieve them, just like planning and programming the route for the flight in the aircraft. All we need to do now is to make sure that we stay on course by monitoring our journey and turn back on course when we have deviated from track. If we stay focused we will definitely get to our destination in life.

In summary, the following are lessons learned from the cockpit on how not to get deviated in life, to help stay on course and finally reach our destination.

• Know who we are by knowing and realizing our own strengths, weaknesses and limitations,
• Set our destination, that is know exactly what we want in our life,
• Plan and program in our mind on how to achieve what we want in life, and
• Continuously reviewing that we are on track get back on course when we have deviated from our journey.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Tags: discipline, Lessons learned from cockpit