Poker Face-CRM

Poker Face,

We have all seen movies that show the difficult moments inside cockpits.  The tales are plagued with cool demeanor and almost poise composure.  When the subject arises seldom is the image of Ted Striker sweating profusely our benchmark.  This composure is a learned behavior, do you think is a technique?

And by that let me tell you how I learned about it.

In the beginning of my career I had three moments of truth that showed me how I was to behave if something went haywire.  My first encounter with that solemn demeanor occurred during a helicopter “payroll flight” in the Guatemalan mountains.  I was learning to fly in the area by watching and doing this incredible job.   (“Payroll flights” was the name given to these flights by the men and women who waited for us to bring payroll money to their locations) We had to jump between coffee farms, evading weather and navigating, which at the time was almost all what I could take from my rookie standpoint.  It was intense, we had to be quick, we had to be vigilant for the weather and we had to use pilotage and dead reckoning to go from A to anywhere and everywhere.  (Coffee plantations in Guatemala sit high in the mountains where it pours when it isn’t foggy)

We were flying between farms and suddenly it happened.  A light came on, on the Hughes 500D and for the first time in my life brought me to an enormous realization.  I was a pilot when everything was fine but as soon as the light came on I had doubts.  Was this going to develop into an incident, what exactly does that light tell me, where do we land?  All of this transpired as feelings and thoughts to fast for me to reference them to the clock.  I was flying and the pilot/instructor saw the light and beneath those visors lived no doubts. 

He took the controls although never made anything that prompted me to think that “everything wasn’t under control” and almost part of the plan.  Who would have thought that by turning my head ninety degrees in the direction of my instructor my doubts would fade?  Little did he do, less did he say, but I felt safe.  We landed minutes later in our primary base helipad where the light was cleared.  Lesson learned.

The second moment for me was in an airplane, a PA34 Seneca II; we had departed an airport returning towards our base in the late evening and due to mountainous terrain had climbed to 12000’ on an IFR flight plan.  The weather was cloudy with scattered rain showers, which obscured the sky.  The left seat captain was an airline pilot who at the time was on vacation from his usual job and agreed to help us get set up in our new fixed wing operation.  He was magnanimous with me; he let me fly every time, everywhere, I was so pleased to be learning with him. 

We had an uneventful climb and after a while leveled off and ran our checklist, he encouraged me to make every effort to do the things the right way. 

Suddenly and without notice a tremor started, I thought I had learned my lesson from before so I decided to do as I had learned, I set up a calm face and did nothing hasty.  But I still felt doubts, I felt as if our plan had failed and I had no back up.  I was thinking about what to do when suddenly I saw movement.  The captain moved his hands towards the microphone; it felt strange to the eye since you only need one hand to use the mike, and then there it was, he took with one hand the mike and with the other unplugged it, calmly gave it to me so I could plug it to my side of the panel and said: “I have control”

The vibration persisted as he moved the engine power levers one a time, the right engine was producing less power but still developing enough to continue our flight.  About thirty minutes later we landed safely, the engine didn’t require to be feathered; we used it all the way to the ground.  During our briefing I recall he telling me that if it should quit or the vibration worsen we would feather it, we talked about the procedure he would like us to use.  Later that night our maintenance department found that one of the rockers in one cylinder was broken.  Lesson learned.

Years later I had been flying for some time in my new job, a shiny new right seat in a B737 200 for the best airline in the world. (The one that gives you your chance is the best) Little did I know that on that day my third moment of truth would come.  That day we landed in DFW and were to return that same day back home.  DFW was impressive to me, traffic, speed, communication, size; they are to this date I think an exceptional gang.

After a quick turn around we departed DFW with the same captain with whom we had the Seneca event (incredible).  As usual he let me fly what I wanted and I chose to fly the return leg. (He also let me fly the arrival into Dallas, which I liked very much) Our departure was uneventful and it seemed to me that the Dallas bread that my family loved so much was going to be on time.

I was hand flying the aircraft and while climbing through 20,000’ we felt a sharp pull to the right and a very noticeable change in sound accompanied by some lights and whistles.  And here we go, calm face, no hasty acts, and a plan.  My words were something like this: “ Could you tell them we are stopping the climb please”. This time he grabbed the mike with his left hand and reported that we were stopping the climb and needed vectors back since it appeared that our right engine had a problem, his right hand silenced the bells.  They gave us a turn a descent and space for us to work in our situation without rush and without haste.

At some point during our descent he asked me if I felt comfortable flying the aircraft on one engine, and I said that I felt ok. ATC gave us a long final to one of the many runways in DFW and we landed minutes later with the usual emergency equipment escort.  At the gate we reviewed our procedures to make our report and we were happy that our crew and passengers, the company, the ATC, the aircraft and many other little but important things were taken care of during our event.

After a while we went down to see what had happened. Maintenance was inspecting the engine which was leaking oil, the leak came from a hole in the gearbox which had been punctured by one of the gears flying off.

Lesson learned.

As you can see in the beginning I had it all backwards, I was a teenager and truly thought  that pilot's excellence and solemn behavior came from them being brave and courageous. I thought as if their demeanor could have possibly been used there or in medieval knight fight equally.  Man was I wrong; by the time that third event happened I had been flying and wondering.  What is it that turns an event from manageable to unmanageable? Do I fake my solemn face every time? Were those men faking it?  The answer is no, they were not faking it.  They are the real McCoy, but although they may be brave they were not standing in courage to accomplish their feats.  They were standing in knowledge, preparedness, skill, attitude and many other abilities that we have to cultivate, for us to be not only good aviators but better human beings.  From the first time we had that light in the 500 to the time the 737's engine decided to quit I made an effort to get prepared and always be vigilant to properly  assess what is going on around me. As I found out that is not an easy thing to do.

We are always telling ourselves a story about what is happening with us and around us, and that story can lean for many reasons and cease to be accurate or even real.   The accuracy of the story you tell yourself depends on how you take and corroborate the information available to you.

Before, during and after a flight be always vigilant not to be leaning towards a certain outcome or feeling comfortable with what you are yet not proficient at.  It is truly impossible to cover all the corners, if not ask Captain Sullenberger. But make an effort, build a method, do your homework, learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others and you’ll see how peaceful that place really is. 

The next time an abnormal situation slides in your path I’m sure you will be standing knowledgeable and prepared with the right skills to dress up the occasion.  Be sure that from a distance that poker face reads courage and valor but what it really is, is: attitude, knowledge, and a winning method.

Safe flights,

Luca Pineda