Stop The Rush

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 12:04 PM ET

Verified

If being a few minutes behind schedule is a personal or professional crisis, you’re doing it wrong. Think about how to prevent such an outcome next time and how to plan your operations to avoid time pressures.

Key Takeaways:

Rushing is a critical link in the aviation accident chain, often self-imposed due to pressures like time constraints, performance anxiety, or personal tendencies, leading to errors and decreased situational awareness.
The author's experiences highlight how easily pilots, even professionals, can be thrown off routine and succumb to rushing without realizing it, impacting safety and efficiency.
Consciously slowing down, methodically using checklists, planning ahead, and communicating to create necessary time are effective strategies to mitigate rushing, reduce errors, and paradoxically, often do not cost additional time.
While truly time-critical emergencies demand rapid response, pilots should generally prioritize safety by allowing for necessary delays rather than succumbing to self-imposed pressure to rush for minimal time savings.

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A few months ago, I was assigned an empty flight to take a plane to a maintenance center and return. What an opportunity! Two empty legs? An overnight in a neat city? Sounds like a free family vacation! I made sure it was all above board with the company and planned everything out. It was my first time flying the family since my son was born. Seeing as I was a professional pilot, I figured the various external pressures would not affect me any more than being tasked with transporting the flying public.

It ended up being the opposite. I was thrown off my routine, distracted trying to help the family while completing all my preflight duties. Combine all that with pressure to drop the plane off by a certain time and I consciously recognized that I was feeling rushed.