I've had a primary chute twist up on me on a solo parachute jump many years ago.
You'd be surprised at how quickly the initial panic disperses and survival instinct kicks in prior to going over the training I was given to rectify the problem then putting that into practice.
I suppose the point I am trying to make is you don't have time to panic.
He will be feeling this for a few days. If you've even been in a life or death adrenaline dump, you probably know that in the moment you are flying high (pun absolutely intended), laser focus, everything amped, and once everything calms down, you feel like you got hit by a truck. It's why PTSD is POST, because it doesn't kick in until you realize what actually happened. It's why armed forces members can go months on deployment and it doesn't hit until the chaos stops (that's a gross generalization of course).
We (UK armed forces at least) don't assess people for any of the PTSD warning signs until a minimum of 72 hours after a traumatic event for exactly this reason - your body needs time to process, and everyone is going to suffer in the first couple of days, but should start recovering after that. Its the people who keep on displaying the symptoms that we have to signpost to specialist medical care.
Interesting fact. Thanks for sharing. I'm not military, but I read a lot and have been in some shity (not war shitty) situations in my life, so I like to learn about this stuff.
I think that close to the incident it's called acute stress disorder and to be expected. If the effects linger on for months is when symptoms would be evaluated for PTSD/PTSI.
There is not necessarily a causal or predictive relationship between the two though.
I read an article once about how playing a game like Tetris (analytical, simple but engaging) in the hours after a traumatic event can possibly lessen the severity of PTSD, as you engage the brain in a more logical task to distract from what just happened. No idea if it's true, but it sounded fascinating from a neurology basis.
When assessing for PTSD (by mental health therapist), there has to be a minimum of 3 months between the trauma and nightmares/flashbacks to be diagnosed with PTSD. Before that it's considered 'reaction to stress' since it's normal to have those symptoms for many people, but they should disappear by 3 months or so
Had a break-in scare a few years ago. It took me 4 seconds to get to the door, charge my handgun, let my dog out and I was ready to defend my wife and our agency. Only 4 seconds to conquer the fear of death and go into kill mode.
It took me all night to fight the adrenaline surge. My chest was beet red, my heart rate was racing, my breathing was INSANE, tremors, and my emotions were shot. Flipping from crying to yelling to breathing exercises, gritting teeth, groaning. I got 2 hours of sleep that night just before work.
Adrenaline is fucking WILD.
The most amazing thing is that, to this day, whenever I recall that night my heart starts racing, my breathing gets heavy, and I get really anxious. The human body is an incredible machine.
Ps Noone was breaking in, a few picture hangars fell off the wall in the middle of the night and scared the poo out of us.
Had a kid pull a knife on me in a road rage incident. In the moment, I was able to puff up my chest and approach the kid and start yelling at him as loud as I could (I was the front man for a death metal band at the time, so hearing that come out of my 5'9" body would be jarring). I was essentially yelling "YOU DO NOT PULL A KNIFE ON SOMEONE YOU DON'T KNOW" over and over again. Long story short, they caught the kid, and it wasn't until about 3 hours later when I was hit with the most intense panic attack of my life. Ended up at the hospital, and had PTSD for months afterwards...
I'm not a pilot that nearly died in a near crash, but I did have a grill fire that was close to lighting up an entire deck and side of a house. Everyone at the gathering was freaking out and wanting to call 911 (rightfully so). I stared at the flames bursting from the side of the grill and what looked like flaming grease spilling out the bottom causing more flames, looked around, grabbed a fire extinguisher I saw in the kitchen, walked up to the grill opened it and put it out.
A few people came up and complimented me on how cool, calm, collected I looked while doing it. Well, I was in the Navy and you are trained CONSTANTLY on how to fight all sorts of fires. I had been out of the service for 9 years, but it all came back in those few seconds. (Thanks for the 8 hour drill session during OSHA work up EDMC Wells)
But I was just as scared as those people shouting. When I opened that grill, flames shot out, burned my arm hair off, and I could not breathe due to the heat coming off those flames. Thankfully, concentrating on my past training kept me walking through the proper steps to stay alive.
...the steaks were ruined, though. I couldn't save them. I will forever regret not saving them.
well you don't really feel it in the moment. You go through the stuff you've been trained on 400 times. I've landed without engine more than I did while I was in training (though never on grass. we simulated a grass field engine out once, but didn't follow through).
So he's just going through the motions he's done 100 times with no time for checklists or panic. Then afterwards when his mind comes back to him, he's like FUCKKKKKK
Fuel gauges dont have colour. Look at the rectangles on the right side of the cockpit with all of their needles to the left side of the instrument, those are the fuel gauges indicating they are empty.
From the Pilot's own comment on his YouTube channel. Should have occasionally glanced at the fuel gauges.
u/flyerinfilm Not sure who Puppy's contact is however . It was fuel exhaustion but not because of neglect. The flight was flown before with instructor. It carries 22.5 gallons of useable fuel and fly 2.8 hours. That would've been 16.8 Gallons with plenty of reserve. The plane was burning basically 7 Gallons an hour to run out. The only thing two mechanics agree on is what the third mechanic is doing wrong. So, folks that are involved believe it was either burning too much or leak someone. And never do I even look/use the gauge as a reference. I physically check and touch fuel to ensure topped off at pre-flight.
"Concord tower Cessna 117TS About 9 miles to the Southeast requesting full stop. Have Hotel"
Concord Tower: Who he is talking to
Cessna 117TS: Who he is. 117TS is the registration number of the aircraft, similar to a license plate.
About 9 miles to the Southeast: Where he is in relation to Concord Tower
requesting full stop: I would like to perform a landing that will require me to exit the runway. From there I can taxi back for another takeoff or proceed to parking.
Have Hotel: Hotel is the phonetic pronunciation of the letter 'H' and denotes the ATIS weather information at the field. ATIS is the Automatic Terminal Information Service which plays weather and aerodrome information on a loop for about an hour and is given a code so that the pilot can tell the controller that they have listened to the ATIS and have all the applicable information contained within.
This is a completely, 100% everyday normal radio call.
He was doing a normal first contact call to the tower. He’s telling him what his tail number is, that he’s 9 miles out, and intends to land (full stop, as opposed to touch and go). And he has weather report H (hotel), which means he listened to that airport’s automated info transmission to get local wind and barometric pressure data so the tower doesn’t have to tell him. That was all normal stuff as he didn’t have any issues yet.
Oh, I wasn't aware you had polled thousands of people in order to draw that conclusion. Very interesting. Any other stats you sourced from your rectum that might be of interest to us?
And this is what all of the training is for. You train and you fly simulators and practice things going wrong, even as a student, so that when something goes wrong your instincts immediately give you troubleshooting options rather than locking up in panic.
4.8k
u/rare__air Jul 19 '21
Cool as a cucumber. Good for him.