AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - 85

transportation safety improvements. The
NTSB advocates avoiding cellphone use,
exercising a sterile cockpit, and faithfully using a checklist while flying. It's
terrific advice but only part of the solution. What's missing is incorporating
realistic distractions into flight training so that we learn to handle the ones
that matter and ignore the rest. Some distractions arise because of an event that
is surprising or emergent and, let's face
it, such events will present themselves at
some point. What better way to improve
your piloting skills than to incorporate
real distractions by blending aviation
adventures with flight training?
Years ago my instrument student,
Kevin, called to say that he had been
unable to secure child care for his daughter and sheepishly asked if Stacey could
come along on our cross-country flight.
"Absolutely!" was my response as I love
kids and I looked forward to sharing aviation with his daughter. Stacey was excited

to take her first flight in a general aviation aircraft and especially proud that it
was piloted by her father. She was oblivious to the concentration Kevin needed to
maintain his instrument scan, communicate with ATC, consult his paper charts,
and try to stay ahead of the airplane by
populating the standby frequencies with
those he anticipated to need next. With
her nose glued to the window, she peppered her father with exclamations like,
"Daddy, look how small the cars are!"
"Did you just see that bird we passed?"
and "Daddy, how high is that mountain
over there?" As a caring parent does,
Kevin patiently answered her questions
and in doing so added a new task to his
already impressive workload. Flight
instructors should provide realistic distractions, and it hit me that Stacey had
assumed my job and was working like a
pro. Her presence gave him the added
pressure that made his balancing act particularly difficult. Ultimately Kevin said,

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"Sweetie, we are going to stop for lunch
in a few minutes so let's wait and we can
talk about the flight then."
Managing workload in the cockpit is akin to developing an effective
instrument scan in which we move our
attention around to various gauges, being
careful not to fixate on any one of them.
When an issue arises we decide
whether it is a task that is appropriate
to incorporate into the workload or one
that should be pushed off for the time
being. In the case of the latter, I have
always found it useful to verbalize aloud,
"I am unable to handle this now." Like an
instrument scan, the ability to responsibly multitask can atrophy and requires
routine practice.
I've been in Kevin's shoes and I
would not have been able to earn my
own certificates and ratings were my
kids not able to tag along on occasion.
While it seemed suboptimal at the time,
Stacey made me see how involving my

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - February 2020