Miscommunication

Just as in many aspects of life, miscommunications while flying can lead to confusion, delay, and dangerous situations. In the midst of a critical maneuver, miscommunication can lead to immediate disaster if not remedied. Yesterday's flight had a minor dose of miscommunication, in the form of a command from the instructor that I was not familiar with. While it did not affect the immediate safety of the flight, it occurred during the second low approach and led to a tense few seconds.

The intent of the second go around was a touch and go. But immediately prior, we were doing another low approach, as we had on the first run. Whether I 'remembered' what we were supposed to be doing or not, I was definitely concentrating on maintaining the low altitude right over the runway rather than anticipating the touch and go (which was my first).

In any event, as we were 3/4 of the way down the runway or so, T.I. decided it was time to touch down and commanded "throttle out", meaning to idle. This was a term that I had never heard before, either in past flights or on the ground. He could have said "idle power", "cut power", "pull throttle", "pull power", or a number of other things that would have made sense to me. As it was, my mind was trying to grasp the meaning as we were barely 10 feet over the runway. His commands of "out!" got louder and more frequent the farther we went for about 4 seconds. I remember consciously thinking that "out" might mean to climb out, and that at least, the worst thing that we could do was to get higher.

So, as my hand froze on the throttle, my brain scrambled to put meaning to this word, and we wallowed closer and closer to the end of the runway, I (probably unconsciously) decided that the best move was to add power and climb out. This was when the command changed to "IDLE!", and I said "Oh, I didn't know what that meant." Power back to idle, and we managed a quick touch and go that had plenty of room to spare. On the climb out, we had a little talk about how T.I. would make sure to clarify new terms. I didn't give it much thought at the time, but it highlighted an important facet of flying.

While my brain struggled for comprehension, I couldn't speak and I couldn't do much else other than the physical control of the airplane that I had just recently learned. I wouldn't say it was panic, but I was definitely frozen as far as the task was concerned. I still was keeping an eye on the far side of the runway, and if we had actually been in danger, I was consciously prepared to gun the engine and climb. It was clear, though, that whatever conscious thoughts I was processing were probably vastly outnumbered by the rapid computations of trying to interpret one little three-letter word. That computing power taxed my brain's remaining resources, and left little room for the ability to even ask a question or simply say "what?"

That 4 or 5 seconds was a vivid reminder that miscommunication needs to be cleared up immediately. It is also a reminder that if the act of controlling the airplane is not learned to the point of being able to do it subconsciously, a real emergency can quickly overpower the thoughts you need to do it. That is where a simple "freeze up" can turn to panic and lead to disaster.