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No matter where you are in your aviation career, whether you are a student pilot or a seasoned airline transport pilot, you are either going to experience fear and anxiety at some time in you career. That is because, unlike many hobbies and careers, aviation is one in which you are tried and tested over and over again.

And to be successful in aviation, you are going to have to overcome and control these feelings and emotions in order to become a great pilot, and ultimately, enjoy your life.

When I look back on my aviation career, it amazes me at the number of written exams and practical tests I have taken and continue to take. If I thought about it enough, I would be living in a world with constant fear and anxiety. I mean every time I get into an airplane I could get a line check either from the FAA or a company check airman. Anxiety. Every six months I have to go back to the simulator and perform emergency rocedures. Anxiety and fear. If I fail any of these, I could potentially lose my job. Fear.

After one particular checkride, a few years back, I realized that I couldn’t be constantly be afraid of what might go wrong or what other people will think if things don’t work out. It was crazy but before every checkride, I would work myself into a uncomfortable mental frenzy just thinking about it. I vowed that I would never let this happen again. I started focusing on how I wanted the checkride to turn out. I pictured the perfect checkride. Ironically, the next checkride happened to be one of my best ever. I’d learned to control my fear, and eliminate anxiety and panic by changing my focus by thinking of how things will work out for the best.

So, if you’re crippled with fear and axiety before a checkride, it’s because you’re thinking of how things won’t work out or what could go wrong. You are focusing on the bad things that can happen.

If you don’t have enough information to be confident, your mind immediately focuses on what could go wrong. As you play the situation over and over in your mind, it then magnifies these things – making a mountain out of a proverbial mole hill.

It’s no wonder that when we do that we become afraid and anxious. Then the anxiety takes over and we can’t do anything. We become crippled with fear when we focus on what could go wrong all the time.

What do you do?

Change your thoughts, start thinking about how things will work out. Push your mind to do things differently. Before the checkride, picture in your mind the perfect checkride.

See yourself walking up to the simulator building, meeting your crew, walking into the simulator, and performing every maneuver PERFECTLY! Don’t even let one wrong thing enter your mind. Make it the PERFECT checkride. A lot of people call this “armchair” flying…and it really works.

What this does is get you into the proper mindset, allowing the things you know to flow. It also allows your mind to handle those “new” things or mistakes that pop-up during a checkride without distracting you. Your mind can just deal with it and move on.

You can’t do this if you’re overcome with anxiety because you’re focus would be on the wrong things like how you might be embarrassed or possibly fail.

And we all know that once your mind goes into a negative tailspin you feel trapped, you’re worried, uncertain, then the panic takes over, the fear cripples you and the anxiety overwhelms you. Now you can’t do anything. So nothing gets done. You can’t think properly. Things just get worse and worse. And though you want them to change, the fear and anxiety stop you dead in your tracks.

It’s not a way to live or a way to go through a checkride.

What can you do?

Like I said, focus on what you want. Think of how you would like your checkride to turn out and fill your mind with thoughts of success before the checkride.

Here is another example of positive thinking in action.

I do this with every landing. About one mile from the approach end of the runway, I take a deep breath and see the landing in front of me — the point I want to land, perfect speed and glideslope control, the power reduction, the flare, the crosswind correction, the touchdown, and the rollout. At the gate, I hear the passengers saying what a great landing it was. It doesn’t work everytime. Sometimes I’ll really smack it onto the ground but it works more than it doesn’t.

The point is, if you stray from your positive thoughts, without constantly practicing positive thoughts, your mind strays more quickly and gives in to that negative junk that leads to fear, anxiety, and poor performance.

You need to change those thoughts. When you do that your subconscious mind will then pick up on these new thoughts and allow you to overcome the fear and perform better than you ever thought and more quickly eliminate the anxiety.

You can overcome fear.
You can eliminate the anxiety.
You can enjoy greater confidence.
You can enjoy success.

Go ahead, try it. I think that you will see that you fly better and that you enjoy flying a lot more in the process. You can then learn how to apply these things to every aspect of your life. Don’t let negative thoughts defeat you or those around you. Focus on being successful and more success will follow.

To Your Flying Success,

Jeffrey

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