Flying and Health — Page 120, Lesson 186

Let’s start with the section called Flying and Health. I want to walk you through a critical point right at the beginning: the more potent forms of analgesics — that’s the medical term for pain killers — may produce a significant decrement in performance. In plain terms, strong painkillers can noticeably impair your ability to fly safely. The text adds a very important qualifier: if such analgesics are required, the pain for which they are being taken generally indicates a condition which precludes flying. So the logic is twofold — first, the pain itself is usually a sign of an underlying medical condition that makes you unfit to fly, and second, the medication you’d take for it further degrades your performance. So the rule is clear: if you need strong painkillers, you shouldn’t be flying. Now let’s move to Symptoms in the Air. The book states that accidents and incidents have occurred as a result of aircrew flying whilst medically unfit, and some have been associated with relatively trivial ailments. That’s a sobering point — even minor illnesses have been linked to real accidents. The text gives examples: symptoms of colds, sore throats, and abdominal upsets. On the ground, these might cause little or no problem. But in the air, they may become a problem by distracting the sufferer and degrading his or her performance. So the key mechanism here is distraction — even a mild symptom can pull your attention away from flying tasks. Additionally, the in-flight environment may also increase the severity of symptoms which may be minor when on the ground. So not only does the distraction grow, but the symptom itself can get worse due to factors like pressure changes, dry air, or vibration. Then the book gives a REMEMBER box, and I want you to take this as a hard rule: IF A PILOT IS SO UNWELL THAT MEDICATION IS REQUIRED, THEN HE/SHE MUST CONSIDER HIMSELF/HERSELF UNFIT TO FLY. That’s a self-assessment standard — you don’t wait for a doctor to ground you. If you feel you need any medication for an illness, you are automatically unfit to fly. That’s the professional standard. Now, after that, the excerpt shifts to a new chapter — Chapter 7: Stress. I see the chapter outline lists topics like An Introduction to Stress, The Stress Model, Arousal and Performance, Stress Reaction and the General Adaption Syndrome (GAS), Stress Factors (Stressors), and several subcategories including Physiological Stress Factors, Cognitive Stress Factors, Non-professional Personal Factors, Imaginary Stress (Anxiety), Organizational Stress, Stress Effects, Coping with Stress on the Flight Deck, and Stress Management Away from the Flight Deck. There’s also a Stress Table and a Stress Summary. So this chapter is going to build a complete picture of what stress is, how it affects your performance, and how to manage it as a pilot. Let’s begin with the first topic: An Introduction to Stress. The book doesn’t give the full text here, but I can tell you that we’ll be working through the stress model, which includes a feedback mechanism — and I’ll show you Figure 7.1 when we get to it. Then we’ll look at the relationship between arousal and performance using the Yerkes-Dodson curve in Figure 7.2, and later we’ll examine possible stressors in Figure 7.3. So we have a structured path ahead. For now, let’s start with the very first section of Chapter 7. I’ll teach you what stress is, how it’s modelled, and why the feedback loop matters. Ready?