Does a person act different when they are about to fly their jet?

I noticed some atypical behavior when someone makes a commitment to flying a model.

It happens with the prop guys as well but is much more noticable at jet events. Here are somethings Ive noticed:

-Inability to laugh
-Noticable decrease in communication
-forced smile
-loss of concentration (asking someone a simple question and getting a weird/detached answer)

Do you know of any strange rituals that are performed prior to flight? My friend Lee does a few push-ups when hes ready to go.

I'll be the first to admit I'm a total retard from the point when I decide to fly my jet to when the wheels touch down. I also get a mean stomach ache [:'(] Not to mention, the night before a jet event I absolutely WILL NOT SLEEP without the aid of a dramamine or two.

At last years NE Jet rally I was fuelling up my F-16 when a gentleman asked me if I knew where Jeff was, I said "yeah hes right over there" I proceeded to point in the direction of a group of about 15 people. He asked me which one was Jeff, I told him "the guy with the hat on". He gave me a strange look and walked away.

Of the 100+ people in attendance, only a handful were NOT wearing hats..

I don't know why I come up with posts like this, thankfully most of them do not make it to RCU

Pete

Pete,

I'm a relative newb, but I think that "game face" is common and healthy. I make my dumbest mistakes when I am most relaxed and yucking it up before a flight. And especially when I am fueling or preparing to start, I don't want any distractions.

I understand when non-jet guys don't get this because their machines are so much simpler, so I politely tell them I don't want to be rude, but that I'm gonna concentrate on my task at hand so I don't goof it up.

I am fairly new to jets as well. This will be my 3rd year, but the last time I goofed around before I fly anything it was a pusher prop plane and I forgot to put the wing tube in. Guess what happened? So when it comes to my jet I pretty much do my own thing and talk after each flight, but going home that evening suddenly I become Trixy the talking bandit.

Scott

good post..i feel it takes a great amount of concentration to fly these acft.the monetary investment,the safety issues and procedures of operation demand respect and attention much the same as a full scale jet jock may go thru,i see no difference in this per say.i myself go into my flying mindset when i commit to a flight and quite frankly i find it very irritating to have silly or out of the way conversations during this time.i am reviewing all the steps necessary to start up,acft performance characteristics,which way the wind is blowing,etc...and the flight plan i am going to execute etc.after shut down and cursory acft inspection,i review my flt mentally,and give critical thought as to what was less than par in the flt.after that i am all for casual conversation etc.i feel this sport is for those of mature mindset.i particulary cannot stand those who want to have a conversation with me during my flt...very distracting to me and selfish for those who wish to do so.if the words are not related to the flt please save them for later.i also fly a 33% imac bird and the same applies if not more so.i have seen guys who got jacked up bad by not paying full attention to what they were doing and a 28 inch prop swung by a 100cc eng reminded them of that fact.flying model acft is a huge responsibility as well as an enjoyable sport enhanced by a good dose of proffesionalism.thx guys...and gals.

Yep, and a heck of a lot cheaper too I would say its completely natural to get a 'game face' on and be more focused, it is the signs of a good pilot. I wouldn't want to see a airline pilot flirting with the flight attendant while on the threshold, lol. My opinion, its a good game face. The guys I see who don'ttake careputting a flyingmachine in the air whatever it be is who I look out for.

I have been flying turbines since 1998 and I don't know if I get a game face or not. It is perfectly natural to get nervous you are piloting an expensve, and technical model. I fly jets because I like the challenge, and I also like the adrenaline rush, test flying a new scale jet that I have built NOT an ARF always brings a different set of butterflies. Most go away the second the wheels leave the ground. But I doubt that I decrease my communication with others, and if I ever lose my ability to laugh I'm going to hang it up. This is a hobby and I do it for fun.

David Reid
BVM, JetCat Rep

Personally I enjoy the communication from people who are in the know when I am doing my pre/post flight stuff and by those who are the curious type (meaning someone who is involved in the hobby, and not just a spectator).. Reason being, is they may have value-able input that would result in a better way and it helps me voice what i have done, what i am doing, and how i am doing it. If they do not know turbine operations. The only times i ask for complete silence are during the start-up sequence and that is when myself and my extinguisher helper are the only ones communicating if their is the need for it. The other times are for take-off and landing, as i prefer to be able to see and hear any thrust adjustments and to recognize via sound if they dont happen. Other-wise during the flight i enjoy a simple conversation that does not require alot of thought as it helps make the flight more enjoyable.

Say what? Why do you think the guy went to the trouble to become an airline pilot?

Very interesting that you ask.
I didn't realise what I was like until a club member pointed out recently that I was a right miserable ba-rd before my first flight and then all smiles after landing!

I pointed out that I was not being miserable but merely going through pre flight/safety procedures etc. as has been mentioned above and did not want to be disturbed too much until I was happy with pre-flight.

Apparently a new guy came up to me and asked if it was a jet one time and I am on record as retorting, "What do you think it is, it has no prop and a bloody great hole up it's ar$e" That upset some people. What would they have said if I failed to check something important and crashed in front of them in a ball of fire?

As time has gone on I am a bit more relaxed now but still cannot stand stupid bloody questions to this day.


Gary.

Interesting thread Pete.

I know I get a little 'locked up' before a flight, more so with one of my jets than the other. As the day progresses it's get better, but a hint of it is still there.

Pete.. you and me bro.... RED BULL..... on a full stomach of course, It takes the edge off.

There is one guy I know who flies props... He hates to fly at events. When he gets his plane ready to go, he has a look about him that I find funny (I don't even try to converse with him), He conveys the look of someone who is before a Judge and is about to be sentenced to death.

Funny, but sadly it's true.

Call it a game face if you want to but I'm trying to prep and fly a model jet worth almost $10K. I need to concentrate to get it airborne and back on the ground in one piece. There is nothing worse than trying to fly a camo painted, 175 mph missile while some numbnutz is asking a zillion questions...how fast is it? How much does it cost? Is it hard to fly? Ever crashed one? I love to BS with the guys...just not while I'm flying!

Ditto on what Tom says. While it is understandable that the average spectator might not know I am trying to concerntrate on not destroying my jet by doing preflight inspections, checks, etc...and therefore he and his kid may be inadvertently asking annoying questions before your flight, the more unacceptable part is that It always seems that the local yokel at your hobby field always wants to come by and shoot the breeze right when you are about to light up your turbine... "so what's up? did you see the game last night? blah, blah, blah". Game face is necessary. You get too relaxed, stupid things happen, like starting ingnition, propane lights, and you realize that your kero valve is still shut, etc...

game face saves jets, and sometimes body parts, or possibly lives...

Shaz

Hey Shaz....
"the local yokel at your hobby field always wants to ........"

You've had that same guy at Chatfield too?

I too would rather be considered to be an "aloof prima donna" than get distracted and lose part of my hands, eyes, or my model as a result. When I'm not flying THEN I like to be as social as anybody.
-Mike

This is called CONCENTRATION. You want your plane to be in
as good condition as you should be. As one of the guys said, this
is not $400-$700 hundred bucks. You are dealing with thousand of
dollars.
When I fly, I like to have someone who knows what I'm doing, just
in case I need any help ( CALLER), That's what they are for. BUT!
in the other side, I like to be friendly with the people who want to
learn about jets, even if they ask silly questions. That's how we attract
others to the hobby.
Just my 2 cents.

ENT


ENT

lol, Mike I wish I had a full stomach. I can't eat anything the morning of. Sometimes even the night before.

Wanna hear something els?..

I smoke about 15 ciggarettes a day but I seem to have no problem finishing 2 packs at events.

(1) I hate when too many people standing around me during Pre-flight check[:'(]. Shut down and walk away always works.
(2) Am I alone on this but I find that I need to take a leak before I start the engine

We call it the "nervous p$ss" ... There is one guy spotting for me in my club who would reach over a turn off my beeping talking timer while i was on final thinking it would be better to shut the darn thing off. I told him its just the opposite, leave it beeping because that tunes out the rest of the chatter going on around me and lets me concentrate more !! ha !! Its sort of like reading a book and listening to your ipod at the same time.
V..

Hey guys, maybe we should have a t-shirt with something like this write on it : "ATTENTION ! When I'm bend down on my jet, Please do not talk to me !"... lol....

I was waiting for that to come up. It's interesting to watch the various jet pilots just before take off. After the requisite nervous pi$$, start up and taxi out, one guy tugs at his hat a few times, another grabs his belt and hikes up his pants, another takes a few deep breaths, another does a nervous shuffle. We all have our idiosyncrasies.

Joe

Nervous pi$$, I'm in, one thing I do is spend a lot of time doing the first preflight on a new jet, I mean, I check and recheck everything then I go, so far all of my twenty + builds but one ( I hated that jet any ways [:-] ) have been successfull. Oh yes do not dear to talk to me when I'm on final, on final is me,me,me,me and me, there we landed now time to celebrate .

I find it kind of funny when I invite someone to flying my DV8R on a buddy box. they get all weird and really intimidated with the offer. I think they think I am crazy to even suggest such a thing. It amazes me how so many people think flying an airplane with a jet engine on it makes the airplane hard to fly. My DV8R is one of the easiest model airplanes to fly period. When a regular guy tries it, they always say how easy the model wast to fly.. After that they can see themselves actully owning one in the near future. I think the "Game Face" is really more of a persons focus on whats happening and really is a by-product of attention.

DM

I never suffer from the nervous p$ss syndrome but there is a fellow club member and jet flyer that "coined" it as he makes his way to the jjohn before the days flights.
I know how irritated i get when someone who is a non jet guy starts to ask me all the questions when i am servicing my jet getting ready for a flight. At speed world this past weekend i had my "game face" on getting ready to head out to the flight line and there was a guy looking my jet over just ready for the big conversation. I must have shot him my game face look and he moved on. After the flight i was in a good mood and he came back seeing my smiling face and started the conversation by saying he flew F-16`s in the early 90`s against the very jet that i had just flown, an Egyptian Mig-21 with the same color scheme. I guess you never know when one of those people that ask how far and how much can actually tell you something very very interesting.
V..

"I must have shot him my game face look and he moved on"

Lol, How did you pull that off? It seems no matter what I do, Or what face I "shoot" they still keep comin' [&:]

Not so much with jets since Im still a noob, But with props and helis most definitely.

One thing that does aggravate me big time happened when I used to fly helis. There are several nice open fields near my house. Often I would get home from work grab my stuff and head out for a few flights. Of course, someone driving by sees the helicopter, pulls over and comes running towards me. Before they're even within speaking distance I can hear them, "Aw man! What did that run you?", How far does that thing go? How fast? Is that steam coming out of it? etc". I usually say (especially to the more talkative bystanders) "Hey buddy let me just finish this flight and then Ill tell you all about it". Well that keeps em' quiet for about a minute or so [:@]

LOL amen

I know what you mean, there were alot of people in the pits last weekend. I saw a guy walk right into the nose of Ray's F-16. Lots of questions to answer. But I don't think I get a game face until I am in the sky with lots of traffic.