DON'T PANIC!

Before I was a code monkey, I flew airplanes. I never realized how the lessons I learned then could apply to regular life. I've always said I can teach someone to fly a plane in just a few hours; it's the hours after those first few that teach you to be ready for the unexpected. You learn early that when things go sideways, you only make it worse if you panic.

I was driving back to North Carolina from Nashville on Sunday, and I had a tire-disintegrating blowout. I drive a Silverado, so it wasn't a small tire. I was in traffic, doing about 75 mph, when my front passenger tire decided it was time to let go. I'm sure anyone who's ever had a blowout can attest that it's somewhat of an adverse situation. And I know we've all seen news reports of serious road accidents caused by a high-speed blowout.

So how does this relate to piloting? First and foremost, as I said above, when bad things happen, you learn to stay calm and deal with the problem. More directly, when flying multi-engine aircraft, one of the first things you learn is how to deal with an engine failure and the resulting tendency to "pull" to one side. When bad things happen, like an engine failure or a blowout, they don't usually give you a lot of warning. So you learn that, rather than be surprised, you STAY CALM and KEEP OPERATING YOUR VEHICLE.

When my tire blew, my truck immediately started pulling me to the right. But there was a car there who probably wasn't too keen on sharing space with me. So I couldn't let my truck take me there. I let off the gas and, when I was clear, moved over to the shoulder. I didn't panic.

As I write this, I'm sitting in NTB having a new tire mounted. This isn't how I wanted to spend my lunch break today, but it could have been much worse. I could have been one of those stories on the nightly news. But instead, when a bad situation suddenly developed, I kept my head and dealt with the problem. My old training (even though it was in airplanes and not cars) kicked in.

A quick Google search shows that my lessons weren't exactly unique to piloting. They were based in some common sense steps for disaster preparedness found in many fields. Operate, Communicate, Mitigate. In that order. Whether you're flying a plane, driving a car, or dreaming peacefully in bed, you should be prepared for the engine failure, the blowout, or the 3am call that lets you know the website is down. If you know what you're going to do when a problem happens, you won't have to think about how to handle it when it finally does.


NOTE TO OTHER DRIVERS: If you see someone on the side of the road, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE show a little bit of courtesy and move over. It's rather unsettling to have a car zip past you at 70+ mph. Especially when they're only a few feet from you.