There’s a school of thought that says no pilot should react to anything in the cockpit quickly. At least some of the thinking behind this philosophy is that humans make more mistakes when they are rushed to a decision or action than when they have time to consider what steps to take and then, you know, doing them. There are good reasons to adopt this idea. Engine failure in a twin comes to mind—even airline captains secure the working engine on occasion—and calmly using checklists in such an event is the correct response.
Even when there’s no checklist to perform, our tendencies are toward quick reactions. One example is immediate application of full throttle on takeoff instead of smoothly bringing up the power, allowing us to react to the acceleration and giving us more time to manage the airplane’s behavior. The smooth application of power can minimize an engine’s wear and tear, too, but its principal benefit is allowing more time for the human to react to the changing configuration. An example of when this is most beneficial is the go-around, or balked landing.
