At the moment, I’d describe my mood/outlook as “nervous”. Personally
I don’t think that’s an unreasonable position to be in. I think a sensible amount
of nerves is a healthy thing. It keeps you alert and on your toes as opposed to
relaxed and complacent.
So what mental turnaround has happened in order for to exchange
panic and fear for mere nerves? I’d love to say I’ve had a mental epiphany, that
I’ve found a way to battle through my usual reaction. Truth is though that work
is stupid busy and has done an awful lot to p!ss me off this week. I’ve spent most of my mental energy being
totally furious at certain things and quite frankly haven’t had the time to start
obsessing about my upcoming ordeal.
What I am trying to do is some focused visualisation. This might
sound new-agey type hokum but really it just means imagining what you want to
happen and seeing the mental picture of it happening. So I might close my eyes
and remember what the mental picture of being on the downwind leg for 08 looks like.
How far should I be from the shoreline? What should my altimeter say? What would
that picture look like? What would I expect the needles on my instruments to
do?
I think it works; I tried it a little on the way back from the practice
area last time. I was cleared for a straight in approach for 26 and it’s been a
long time since I did one of those and traditionally I’ve had problems judging
my approach height and selecting a suitable speed. As I got closer to the airport I realised that
I was coming up on the eastern gap*. A little light bulb went off in my head,
you’ve been here before. ATC have often sent you out on an extended final to
the gap, what did that look like? Okay well I would have been at 65 knots on a
final approach and a little under circuit altitude. So that’s exactly what I set up for and you
know what? It worked! Bob complimenting me on how well I blended from my
initial approach to final for landing!
I’m looking at the opposite too. While I’m making sure my emergency
procedures and stuff are straight in my head, I’m not obsessing over them. I
don’t necessarily want to dwell on the “what ifs” because then that is where my
focus is drawn and I start running into the paralysed-by-fear problem.
The final thing I’m visualising is taxiing back in with a huge
smile on my face, knowing that I’ve done a good job and that the plane is back
in one piece.
That’s definitely the image I’m concentrating on!
*I’m working on a series of blog posts about the geographical area I
fly in, so bear with me if you don’t know the local landmarks!
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