I think are confusing terms when talking about ãcan doä. On the one hand we
have the righteous attitude of ãI can do it if it is smart, and with in the
capability of me, my crew, and my equipment in this situationä. That is the
mark of a professional. It is called risk assessment by some, combat savvy by
others, and common sense by some others.
The other ãcan doä attitude stems from the ubiquitous Hazardous Attitudes:
Anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, macho (or macha), and
mission-hackitis (or get-there-itis).
There needs to be some of these in every pilot worth his salt. If we thought
we would not come back from a mission, we probably would not go barring some
overriding emergency (like war, a natural disaster, or life-saving). If we
were slaves to the ãbookä we would not be able to operate in some emergency
or contingency operations, cause the book just donât have all the answers,
etc.
I have friends who lament the ãfighter pilot attitudeä, who decry ãthe right
stuffä. In my experience ãthe lone eagleä, ãI can do it myselfä, ãdamn the
rest of you, I can handle itä kind of pilot does not last long. In my
twenty-seven years of flying, I kind of liked to have the pilot on my wing or
in lead that knew his system (man, machine ,medium) well enough that we could
get the most out of our mission. The pilot who could consistently make the
right decision about whether to fly with what discrepancies, about when to
press to destination, about when to abort and return to base, was the guy I
sought out. There were others, but most of them were weeded out by the
system. Training, evaluations, supervision, and finally, the other pilots.
I have never flown in a perfect system, or as Greg Deen and others might say,
a perfect culture. I have never met a perfect pilot. But the best I have
flown with had the ãcan doä attitude and the professional knowledge, skills
and attitude as to when to let it loose and when to rein it in.
There is nothing wrong with a ãcan doä attitude, except not knowing when ãnot
to doä.
Dave Wilson
HTI