Multi-tasking can be put into two categories; organised, disciplined multi-tasking, and chaos.
A professional pilot making a single-pilot, multi-engine, take-off into instrument weather conditions represents my idea of highly trained, organised, and disciplined multi-tasking. Let's look at a critical 60 seconds in the life of a pilot.
As he opens the twin throttles, he will simultaneously monitor an array of engine gauges, while listening for irregularities in engine noise, using hands and feet to stay on the centre-line and compensate for crosswind. He will be looking for hazards ahead, listening to the radio and constantly updating a mental image of nearby air traffic. He will be checking his airspeed and continuously reviewing his emergency options against the length of remaining runway. At precisely rotate speed he will raise the nose to a precise angle of attack and hold that angle until the wheels lift off, but he must not climb until the aircraft has attained its minimum control speed for one engine, in case one engine should suddenly lose interest, but he will make a new adjustment for crosswind drift so as to still follow the runway centre-line. At the correct speed he will raise the nose a little further as the aircraft accelerates to best rate of climb speed.
In the next 45 seconds our professional will raise the undercarriage, checking the undercarriage warning lights, make adjustments for the loss of undercarriage drag, check the engine instruments, check the heading, change the elevator trim setting to hands-off but continue to fly manually. As he nears cloud-base he will change from visual flight to instrument flight only, scanning altimeter, airspeed indicator, gyro compass, climb and descent indicator and horizontal position indicator, plus the engine instruments; eyes going around and around the gauges. At 500 feet above ground level he is in heavy cloud with no external reference points. He will move the throttles back from take-off power to climb power, change the propeller pitch and lean the mixture controls. Then he will raise the flaps and make further flight control and trim adjustments for the changed airspeed, and the lift and drag of clean flight. He will switch off the auxiliary fuel pumps, engage the auto-pilot on a pre-set heading, acknowledge an instruction from air traffic control to change to a controller on another frequency, dial in the new frequency, contact the new controller, acknowledge an instruction to turn onto a new heading, enter the heading into the auto-pilot, and continue to monitor the flight and engine instruments and the work of the autopilot. That represents a highly organised day's work in just 60 seconds.
Now let's look at the other kind of multi-tasking.
This is the person who loudly proclaims that only women are born to be multi-taskers, and this particular woman is pretty good at it. She has 25 things that she is doing in the house, all at the same time, and when she is finished those she has to meet her friends for coffee, meet the kids from school (she doesn't trust school bus drivers), do the daily shopping, go to the gym, and go to her part time evening job
However, her house is a mess, the part time job she has only held for a month, about the same time as the one before that. But she is a multi-tasking woman, even though visitors have to step around piles of dirty clothes and wash a cup if they want coffee.
But she is doing way better than her husband who has never claimed to be a multi-tasker. In fact she really should get a medal for putting up with him. He has been in the same job for 10 years where he simply follows orders and never has to make any earth-shattering decisions. At day's end he goes to the same bar, sits there until closing time and then drive home drunk in his unlicensed car. There is no doubt about this man. He is definitely not a multi-tasker. For him even one task is a task too many. But I guess there is one thing that this man has done well; he has certainly made a multi-tasker of his wife.
And that, my friends, is multi-tasking in a nutshell. It is not a male/female thing. None of us were born to multi-task, but with correct training, discipline and practice, anyone can be a multi-tasker. Organised, safe multi-tasking won't happen accidentally. However, disorganised, scatter-brain multi-tasking almost always leads to accidents. If a professional pilot makes a mistake at a critical stage of flight he doesn't just boil the pot dry. He creates an instant blazing inferno with no escape.
No comments:
Post a Comment