military ops

Psychological skills of elite military pilots

By Dave English

Fifteen highly-rated pilots were interviewed at a Royal Canadian Air Force base by university psychology researchers as part of a larger longer project on how master performers differ from those of us that are merely ‘good’. Some of the results were published in 2014 — Examining the Psychological Skills Used by Elite Canadian Military Pilots — and it makes for interesting reading. “Your focus narrows and you’re not thinking about other stuff. I can have outside stresses at home and it won’t affect me … as soon as I get into the plane I don’t think about it anymore until I’m on the ground.” Participant … Continue reading Psychological skills of elite military pilots

The problem with pilots

By Dave English

Finished reading an amazing book that was published last year— The Problem with Pilots: How Physicians, Engineers, and Airpower Enthusiasts Redefined Flight, by former USAF U2 instructor pilot and dean of their school of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Colonel Timothy P. Schultz, PhD. It covers the history of automation in aircraft, the replacement and extension of piloting skills into faster, higher, more precise aerial machines. It’s a must-read for people interested in aviation history, human factors engineering, or understanding the history of automated flying. Full of original research, fully referenced, deeply academic yet written in easy flowing English. And … Continue reading The problem with pilots

A new TOPGUN book

By Dave English

I was lucky enough to receive an advance promotional copy of a new book: TOPGUN: An American Story, written by Dan Pedersen, founder of the famed US Navy Fighter Weapons School. It’s a good read. Written with the smooth wisdom of an eighty-three-year-old, who is proud of Navy aviation and his dog-fighting days, but isn’t just writing for wide-eyed and hair-on-fire teenagers dreaming of Mach 2. Now, understand this is an autobiography of a full navy career, not really a standalone history of the Topgun (and word to the wise, that’s one word, not two like the movie) fighter weapons … Continue reading A new TOPGUN book

Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown talks flying

By Dave English

Legendary Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown was a British Royal Navy test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history. He was the most-decorated pilot in the history of the Royal Navy. Some of his ‘firsts’ include first to land a jet on an aircraft carrier and first to land a twin-engine aircraft on an aircraft carrier. He logged over 2,200 aircraft carrier landings. Fought in combat, commanded air bases. Absolutely bloody amazing. Amazon Prime Video has a great little documentary that is almost all him sitting on his couch talking, with some old test footage. … Continue reading Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown talks flying

Zero/Zero, Charles D. Svovoda

By Dave English

“At last I understood what true professionalism is. Being a pilot isn’t all seat-of-the-pants flying and glory. It’s self-discipline, practice, study, analysis and preparation. It’s precision. If you can’t keep the gauges where you want them with everything free and easy, how can you keep them there when everything goes wrong?” Charles D. Svoboda Flying magazine, November 1976. Old editions of Flying magazine are archived by Google books. This amazing article is online for free in the November 1976 edition, and certainly deserves a new audience. It’s about making a foggy zero/zero landing in a huge prop plane. Lots of good … Continue reading Zero/Zero, Charles D. Svovoda