<\/a><\/noindex>\"But she flew well; it was a good flight. She's an excellent cadet; you know that. Why unsatisfactory?\" he asked.
I have always been interested in failures, perhaps due to my own experiences during flight training. As a beginner, I managed well with flying a small piston engine aircraft, and then, even a bit better\u2014with the faster planes equipped with turboprop engines. However, when I got into advanced flight training for future jet pilots, I began to stumble. I worked hard, prepared thoroughly, and spent evenings poring over textbooks, yet I continued to fail flight after flight. Some flights seemed to go well, right up until the post-flight debrief where I was told I needed to try again: such verdicts left me in shock.<\/p>\n
One particularly tense moment occurred during the training process for flying the Hawk\u2014an aircraft used by the Red Arrows display team.<\/p>\n
I had just failed my Final Navigation Test for the second time, a key event of the entire course.<\/p>\n
My instructor felt guilty: he was a good guy, and his students liked him.<\/p>\n
I said to the instructor, who had just flown with one of our best cadets, \"The flight assessment is unsatisfactory.\"
\"Just a technical error, Tim, don't worry about it. You'll get it next time!\" \u2013 that's all he said on the way to the aviation unit, while the unending drizzle of North Wales only compounded my sorrow.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n
Failing a flight once is bad. It hits you hard regardless of the grades you have. Often you feel your failure \u2013 you might forget to level the plane, getting the instruments wrong during takeoff, veer off the air route while flying in the upper atmosphere, or forget to switch the weapon controls to safe during a combat flight. The return after such a flight usually happens in silence: the instructor knows you'll be failed due to your own inattention, and you understand it too. Truth be told, due to the complexities of a student's flight, you can be failed for almost anything, so minor slip-ups often go unnoticed \u2013 yet, some simply cannot be overlooked.<\/p>\n
Sometimes on the return flight, instructors take control of the plane, which is often safer.<\/p>\n
But if you fail a flight twice, the pressure on you increases dramatically.
After the third failure, you get expelled. If you're lucky, and there's an available spot at another flight school, you might be offered a place in the training course for helicopter pilots or transport aircraft pilots, but there's no guarantee, and often, expulsion means the end of a career.<\/p>\n
The instructor I flew with was a nice guy and during previous flights, he often played a phone call in the headset while I didn't 'answer'.<\/p>\n
\"Hello,\" I said.<\/p>\n
\"Yes, hello, Tim, this is your instructor from the back seat, the guy \u2013 quite handsome \u2013 you might remember me, we talked a couple of times. I wanted to tell you that ahead of us is an air corridor; maybe you would like to avoid it.\"<\/p>\n
\"Oh, crap,\" I replied, sharply turning the aircraft.<\/p>\n
All cadets know that instructors are on their side: they want cadets to succeed, and most are willing to go out of their way to help the novice pilots. After all, they were cadets themselves once.<\/p>\n
For a novice pilot, success is obviously important \u2013 it is the primary focus for most cadets. They will work late, come in on weekends, and watch flight recordings of other pilots to glean bits of information that might help them last another day in school.<\/p>\n
But for instructors, success isn't as important: there are other things we care more about. <\/p>\n
Failures.<\/p>\n
When I was 10 years old, my father took me on a trip to Normandy with a group restoring old military vehicles, of which he was a member. He had a World War II motorcycle that he restored, and while my father rode alongside the convoy, I traveled in a tank or jeep, having a great time.<\/p>\n
For a small child, it was thrilling, and I chatted with everyone who would listen as we made our way through the battlefields and spent evenings in tents set up on the sunburned meadows of northern France.<\/p>\n
This pastime was wonderful, until it was interrupted when my father couldn't manage the gas stove's operation in the dark.<\/p>\n
One morning, I was awakened by the shout \u2013 \"Get out, get out!\" \u2013 and forcefully pulled from the tent.<\/p>\n
It was on fire. And so was I.<\/p>\n
Our gas stove exploded and set fire to the tent door. The flames spread to the floor and ceiling. My father, who was outside at the time, dove into the tent, grabbed me, and pulled me out by my legs. <\/p>\n
We learn a lot from our parents. Sons learn from their fathers, while daughters learn from their mothers. My father wasn't one to express his emotions, and I also tend to be rather reserved.<\/p>\n
But in the case of the burning tent, he demonstrated to me how people should respond to their own mistakes in a way that I will never forget.<\/p>\n
I remember sitting by the river where my father had just thrown our burned tent. All our gear was gone, and we were devastated. I could hear a few people nearby laughing as they discussed the fact that our home had been destroyed.
\"I lit the stove in the tent. That was a mistake,\" he said. \"Don't worry, everything will be fine.\"<\/p>\n
Father didn\u2019t look at me, continuing to gaze into the distance. And I knew everything would be fine because he said it would be.<\/p>\n
I was only 10, and this was my father.<\/p>\n
And I believed him because there was nothing in his voice but submission, sincerity, and strength. <\/p>\n
And I knew that the fact we no longer had a tent didn't matter.<\/p>\n
\"It was my mistake, I'm sorry I burned it \u2013 this won't happen again,\" he said in a rare moment of emotion. The tent floated downstream as we sat on the shore and laughed.<\/p>\n
My father understood that failure is not the opposite of success but a part of it. He made a mistake, but he used it to show how mistakes affect a person \u2013 they allow one to take responsibility and provide an opportunity to make amends.<\/p>\n
They help us understand what will work and what will not. <\/p>\n
This is what I told the instructor of the trainee who was on the verge of graduation.<\/p>\n
If she makes a mistake on the front lines, she may never come back.<\/p>\n
The higher you climb, the harder you fall. I wondered why no one understood this early in their training.<\/p>\n
\"Move Fast, Break Things\" \u2013 an early motto of Facebook.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Our overly successful trainee did not understand the value of mistakes. Academically, she passed her Initial Officer Training well, receiving numerous praises throughout the process. She was a good student, but whether she believed it or not, her saga, which is a success story, could soon be interrupted by the reality of frontline operations.<\/p>\n
\"I gave her a 'fail' because during her training, she never received one,\" I said.<\/p>\n
Suddenly it dawned on him.<\/p>\n
\"I realized,\" he replied, \"she has never had to recover from failures. If she makes a mistake in the night sky somewhere in northern Syria, recovering will be harder for her. We can create a controlled failure for her and help her overcome it.\"<\/p>\n
That's why a good school teaches its students to appropriately perceive failures and value them more than successes. Success creates a comfortable feeling because you no longer need to look deeply within yourself. You can believe that you are learning and will be partially right.<\/p>\n
Success is important because it tells you that what you are doing is working. However, failures build the foundation for ongoing growth, which can only come from an honest assessment of your work. You don't need to fail in order to be successful, but you must understand that failures are not opposed to success and that they shouldn\u2019t be avoided at all costs. <\/p>\n
\"A good pilot is able to objectively assess everything that has happened... and learn another lesson from it. Up there, we must fight. That is our job.\"<\/i> \u2013 Viper, from the movie 'Top Gun'<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Failure teaches a person the same lessons my father taught me before I became the chief flight instructor at the flying school where I struggled for survival for years.<\/p>\n
Submission, sincerity, and strength.<\/p>\n
That's why military instructors know that any success is fragile, and true learning must be accompanied by failures.<\/p>\n
A few comments on the original article:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Tim Collins<\/b><\/i>
Tim Davies (author)<\/b><\/i>
Stuart Harth<\/b><\/i>
Tim Davies (author)<\/b><\/i>habr.com<\/a><\/p>","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00ab\u041e\u0446\u0435\u043d\u043a\u0430 \u0437\u0430 \u043f\u043e\u043b\u0451\u0442 \u2013 \u043d\u0435\u0443\u0434\u043e\u0432\u043b\u0435\u0442\u0432\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e\u00bb \u2013 \u0441\u043a\u0430\u0437\u0430\u043b \u044f \u0438\u043d\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0443\u043a\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0443, \u043a\u043e\u0442\u043e\u0440\u044b\u0439 \u0442\u043e\u043b\u044c\u043a\u043e \u0447\u0442\u043e \u0441\u043e\u0432\u0435\u0440\u0448\u0438\u043b \u043f\u043e\u043b\u0451\u0442 \u0441 \u043e\u0434\u043d\u043e\u0439 \u0438\u0437 \u043d\u0430\u0448\u0438\u0445 \u043b\u0443\u0447\u0448\u0438\u0445 \u043a\u0443\u0440\u0441\u0430\u043d\u0442\u043e\u043a. \u041e\u043d \u043f\u043e\u0441\u043c\u043e\u0442\u0440\u0435\u043b \u043d\u0430 \u043c\u0435\u043d\u044f \u0432 \u0437\u0430\u043c\u0435\u0448\u0430\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0435. \u042f \u043e\u0436\u0438\u0434\u0430\u043b \u0442\u0430\u043a\u043e\u0439 \u0432\u0437\u0433\u043b\u044f\u0434: \u0434\u043b\u044f \u043d\u0435\u0433\u043e \u043c\u043e\u044f \u043e\u0446\u0435\u043d\u043a\u0430 \u0431\u044b\u043b\u0430 \u0430\u0431\u0441\u043e\u043b\u044e\u0442\u043d\u043e \u043d\u0435\u0430\u0434\u0435\u043a\u0432\u0430\u0442\u043d\u043e\u0439. \u041c\u044b \u0445\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0448\u043e \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043b\u0438 \u0443\u0447\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0446\u0443, \u044f \u0447\u0438\u0442\u0430\u043b \u043f\u043e\u043b\u0451\u0442\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u0434\u043e\u043a\u043b\u0430\u0434\u044b \u043e \u043d\u0435\u0439 \u0438\u0437 \u0434\u0432\u0443\u0445 \u043f\u0440\u0435\u0434\u044b\u0434\u0443\u0449\u0438\u0445 \u043b\u0451\u0442\u043d\u044b\u0445 \u0448\u043a\u043e\u043b, \u0430 \u0442\u0430\u043a\u0436\u0435 \u043d\u0430\u0448\u0435\u0433\u043e […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":1,"featured_media":27912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[702],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t
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