Flight Attitude and Other Important Considerations
About two weeks into my tour in Vietnam, the pilot came over the radio to say, “Don’t be putting any rounds into my wing tank, Doc.” I thought at first that he was ribbing me as the only non-Marine on board but soon discovered that he was serious. (Marines tend to think of any armed sailor as a potential liability until he has proven himself in active combat situations.) I was quite indignant at this seemingly condescending dismissal from the pilot, and I choked back the impulse to reassure him that I was familiar with firearms of various kinds and accurate in their use. As a rule, however, one should not attempt instructional debates with officers, especially when one’s life is in their hands. Nonetheless, I remained quietly very offended.
Not long thereafter I was walking on the flight line when I noticed two small square metal patches on the left-side wing tank of a CH-46. That wing tank was only a foot or two aft of the rectangular open window where I was routinely positioned on our flights, full-auto M-16 in hand. Apparently, prior to my arrival some other corpsman was too enthused and too little in control while returning fire; he had unintentionally put two bullets into that fuel tank. The repair crews patched it up, and the flight crew had been lucky that it hadn’t burst into flame. I then understood why the pilot was concerned and cautioned me.
It’s problem enough when the Phrog has bullet holes provided by the enemy. It’s even worse when the holes are self-inflicted by a member of the crew. I thereafter paid even closer attention to my line of fire, determined not to shoot down my own helicopter. I also remained very grateful to the pilot who cautioned me not to repeat another corpsman’s error. Why? Because my perception about the whole incident had changed. In military terminology, one could say that I had achieved an attitude adjustment about the situation.
Though I am not a pilot, I have been around enough aircraft to know that one of the many devices on the cockpit instrument panel provides information essential to successful aviation, the aircraft’s flight attitude indicator. (“Success”, in this case, is defined as arriving alive and unharmed at your destination, with the aircraft intact and still in reasonably functional condition.)
The flight attitude indicator is a ball made of two colored halves, one light and one dark, separated by a highly visible line between the contrasting colors that represents the horizon. This ball floats freely in a sealed chamber of liquid installed in the instrument panel. Depending on the angle and visible color of the floating ball, an aircraft’s nose may be elevated (climbing), descending (headed toward the ground), or level (straight ahead flight). A slant in the horizon demarcation line indicates that the pilot is banking right or left. This nifty instrument enables the pilot to see at a glance in what direction s/he is traveling. This is especially important at night or when flying through clouds.
The aircraft will be fine if a) it has lots of space between it and the ground/ocean (altitude); b) it has forward motion (without which it is either hovering or has become a rock); and c) it has adequate fuel not to disrupt either a or b. Nothing can go right, though, if the pilot is cruising along at full speed not knowing that the nose is pointed toward the ground. In flight, as in life itself, being cognizant of one’s attitude is crucial.
In normal day-to-day interactions, our ability to build constructive relationships and solve problems together is significantly affected by our attitudes. In human terms, an attitude is a tendency or orientation of the mind, a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something that influences one’s subsequent behavior. It is a learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way or from a certain perspective. Analogous to the aircraft’s flight attitude indicator, being aware of my attitudes tells me in what direction I am pointed and my orientation to the world around me. It also helps me to pay attention to what I might be missing, like the mountain range ahead of me.
One’s attitudes derive from three components:
Cognitive sources reflect how I think about things, what I have been taught to believe, and the effect of experiences that have led to some of my perceptions about life and other people.
Emotional (or affective) reactions are indicative of how I feel about the people, events, and objects I encounter. How I feel about things or other people has a great deal to do with how I behave when encountering them.
Behavioral evidence of my attitudes comes from my easily-observed responses toward the person or issue at hand. Behavioral tendencies are the result of learned habits, including modeling the behavior of others in my efforts to belong and to be accepted by my community. This behavior is often deeply ingrained and not something we are fully aware of, though other people can readily observe it simply by watching us.
There are other important concepts that come from the study of perception, how our senses pick up on the world around us (and within us), and how the brain comes to certain conclusions about what it is observing. These concepts include the following:
Stereotypes are learned assumptions about others that block my ability to see those others (or events) in an objective, realistic manner. While some stereotypes are seemingly positive, most are negative, critical and rejecting. Example: “dumb jocks”. The stereotype of athletes is that they are less intelligent than other groups. The reality is that high school students involved in varsity athletics have (on average) gpa’s that are higher than the average of the rest of the student body. Athletes are above average in academic performance, though the inaccurate myth (stereotype) is widely believed.
Perception bias tells us about the tendency of humans to be aware of certain stimuli (things in the environment) and to pay far less attention to other factors that we deem less important. This bias causes us to focus on a restricted range of observable phenomena and to ignore others. Example: People observing an auto accident or an altercation on the street tend to have very different descriptions of unfolding events, due to their individual perceptual biases about what they observe. What we see and hear is often influenced by who it is that is doing the observing.
Confirmation bias tells us that we tend to pay attention to that which confirms what we already think, feel or do, while ignoring or not picking up on facts that would contradict our bias. We see and hear evidence that confirms our limited perceptions of reality while missing altogether facts and events that contradict our established beliefs. Example: If I believe that teens are generally noisy, impulsive and disrespectful, I am most likely to see evidence of that bias because it confirms what I already believe. If I see a group of calm, purposeful teens working on a community project together, I am unlikely to notice or care about them because it does not reaffirm my preconceived notion about teens. I could see them differently but choose not to.
When it comes to making decisions about difficult or otherwise important things, then, being mindful of one’s attitudes is crucial. Seeking to understand my own attitudes is like taking a good look at the flight attitude indicator on the aircraft. I generally ask myself three questions when trying to understand my own attitudes:
- What preconceived notions or conclusions am I carrying that might block me from perceiving the situation accurately, thus leading me to make bad choices and decisions?
- What led me to see things the way I do? Or, how did I come to these preconceived ideas?
- What am I missing that might also be true, thus limiting my ability to see things accurately?
In situations of conflict or differing opinions, I recommend using your imagination to crawl behind the eyes of the other person, attempting to see the situation the way they might. At the least, this effort enables you to see from another perspective, to enhance the accuracy of your own thoughts and feelings, and to increase the likelihood of making good choices. Never increase your air speed without checking the flight attitude indicator, especially when flying toward mountains. Nose down is usually detrimental; level flight, while normally a good thing, might not be enough in that terrain; nose up at the correct angle is the way to go. In the cockpit, as with the direction of your life, attitude matters.
Things to Wonder About:
Think about an identifiable group of people (like college professors, SeaBees, or any racial/ethnic group other than your own). What stereotypes might you hold about that group?
Identify a time when you have been misunderstood or treated unjustly because of someone else’s perceptual bias? How did that affect you?
What are some attitudes that might block you from understanding others?