The Rules..

Mr Pilot today introduced us to "The Rules of Flight Club" or at least the first two; he wouldn't let us in on the other rules as he didn't feel we were worthy enough; yet..

Rule No. 1 - Fly the Plane
Rule No.2 - See Rule one (It is really important)

Mr Pilot
- "Now, I know what you're thinking; pretty obvious eh? But you would be surprised at how many pilots forget this simple rule. But this is what you are there for; to fly the plane. Everything else comes afterwards."

I take it he means things such as reading the newspaper and enjoying a coffee at 35,000ft.

Mr Pilot
- "When you are flying the plane there will be lots of distractions. But first and foremost, you concetrate on flying the plane. You will have Air Traffic Control in your ear telling you things, but all of these come after. Even your brain will start to tell you lies, lies which you must ignore (referrring to Somatogyral and Somatogravic effects); if you don't then it will fuck you up..!"

He continued
- "Look at Captain Sully, he flew the plane..! He had ATC constantly telling him all this rubbish, he just ignored it and flew the plane. If ATC are telling you stuff and there is a problem, you worry about flying the plane, they can redirect traffic around you..!"

He then adopted a more sombre tone
- "You may be worried about calling in a MAYDAY if something goes wrong. This will be you admitting to ATC that you are in trouble; but don't worry about ATC. More importantly you will be admitting to yourself, that you are in trouble; this may be a bit more difficult. But it will help, it will be the first step. Then you concentrate on Rule No. 1"

He then led into a story
- "When I was an instructor, I was with a pilot whose door was not closed properly and as we took off and started to climb, the air popped the door open. He panicked and started trying to fiddle with the door. I looked at him stunned and said in a calm, commanding Captain's voice

'Fly the Plane..!'

He instantly stopped faffing around with the door and started flying the plane. We fixed the door once we had reached a few thousand feet."

So, Rule No.1 - Fly the Plane.

The first rule of Flight Club..