The Weight of Hearing 'State Your Intentions'

While consensus is good, in an airplane inflight, where things are moving in real time, it’s an autocracy and there’s only one decision-maker that counts.

Ben Younger

Thursday, December 22, 2022 at 08:43 AM ET

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The Van Nuys Airport (KVNY), in the Los Angeles Basin, has been the scene of much filmmaking—aviation and otherwise. [Credit: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

The article contrasts the collaborative, consensus-driven decision-making common in TV directing with the singular, autocratic responsibility required of a pilot, especially in critical flight situations.
Pilots are solely accountable for all critical flight decisions, including go/no-go choices and emergency procedures, as Air Traffic Control (ATC) provides information but avoids making these calls due to liability and a lack of direct situational awareness.
Through personal anecdotes, the author illustrates that while pilots should utilize available resources like ATC for information and assistance, they must ultimately determine their own intentions and execute their plans.

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I am currently in Los Angeles gearing up to shoot a TV pilot for ABC. Three weeks out from our first day of filming, there are more than a hundred people working for me to help create the vision and, ultimately, the result that will get this show on the air for what we all hope will be a years-long series.

Every day I ask the same question to multiple people: “What do you think?” In some instances, I have a pretty good sense of what I want (on camera). Other times (for costumes, mainly), I really don’t have a clue. I simply can’t weigh in with any authority on what kind of ballgown a Korean-American woman in her 60s would be wearing to a political fundraiser. And that’s okay. My costume designer does.