True. And even the best amount of training will still never prepare us for the shock, surprise, disbelief, fear (of many things), anger, and a host of other emotions that all come like a whirlwind when something of this magnitude occurs, especially in the immediate moments following it. The people you would think would react one way, react differently, and vice versa. It's very interesting and sobering at the same time, coming upon pilot/crew from an accident in the immediate aftermath, and seeing these reactions firsthand. It surprised me, and has each time; for different reasons.
This reminds me of 'The Right Stuff' - the book, not the movie. One thing that really stuck out at me during my reading of the book is that the orig. Mercury 7 were trained to NOT REACT – to not have that host of emotions - and it was in that un-reaction that made them successful. The tests and training that they underwent trained their mind and body. Even in the most stressful of situations - high G takeoffs, splashdown, being sealed into a tin can, and etc. it was treated as if all was normal and to react like a computer would to the situation. They were fully desensitized from the experiences they were going to undergo during their flight.
I think about that a lot and compare it to my training and experience in the airline world where we all still have dreams of having ‘The Right Stuff.’
For me, and in my experiences, it was the opposite of the astronauts. The overall fatigue that the company subjected you to dulled your senses into complacency rather than over preparedness.
I did get a ‘CONFIG FLAPS’ triple chime/audible on a take off roll. Once, when I was a new FO and with a Captain who was rushing through a short taxi. The lesson that I learned was a very good one – not to rush and to have a flow that would minimize errors in the future. Because of this I became a better pilot... in fact I ended up developing a pre-takeoff flow that covered both mine and the captains required items along with a continued double check of everything important. And because of that abort, a situation like it has never happened again. (to me... yet) And, most importantly, because of mental vigilance, I caught other ‘gotchas’ that might have bitten me in the future.
And to this day, there is a mental ‘abort, abort, abort…’ running through me head till the V1 callout.
Does this mean I never missed a radio call and was a perfect robotic pilot… A perfect Johnny Brownnose… No, no one is perfect. It means that I treated the ‘critical phases of flight’ as critical… I know most of the things that can kill me. If people make fun, or asked why I would point and touch during the Before Takeoff Checklist, I would explain that I took a whole bunch of good experiences taught to me by a whole lot of good captains and made it into my own.
In this particular situation, -the theme of the thread- I would hopefully have caught it… because each and every time I would point and look [and check] each item on that line of the Before Takeoff Checklist…
Flaps 20 Required…
Point and Look at ACARS,
Flaps 20 Selected…
Point and Look at the Flap Handle,
Indicating Flaps 20…
Point and Look at ED1 –
if it was set wrong, and there were days where things didn't agree – which is another story for later – it was corrected. (Which is the reason we have checklists and flows)
So, really, what am I saying... well, we are all human. We are not infalliable. We are all tired... of course we are, especially at the regionals. We are all also professionals - try to act like it, every day. Could this have happened to me, I hope not. But, yes... every day people with years more experience than me make mistakes.
I work hard to build my box of tools so that the day it's my turn, hopefully, with the grace of God, I will be ready.
