The short (and most relevant) answer?
Keep your head.
It’s one of the most nerve-wracking moments as a student pilot in training. You’re flying along with your instructor, when they suddenly pull the engine power all the way back and say ‘You just lost your engine. What do you do?'
As a passenger, you’d probably need smelling salts to revive you from the shock, and rightly so. As a student pilot, you’d probably need the same thing, when it happens for the first time. But here’s the thing. There is always something you can do about your situation to get out of it.
In everyday situations, one of our first and primary reactions when something goes wrong is to yell, scream, cry, be exasperated, exhausted, break down, or have every single one of those reactions at the same time. If that happens in the cockpit, the outcome is very simple. You’re dead within minutes.
Somehow, this method of thinking has crept into nearly every aspect of my life, ever since I started flying. I’ll be the first to admit that I was a model example of how to react badly when I was in a seemingly bad situation. My initial reaction to a problem has now shifted from ‘Goddamnit, why is this happening to me?!’ to ‘Okay what can I control to get myself in a better position?’
As human beings, we’re not used to constantly being thrown in at the deep end. We like to be in control. But if there’s one thing you learn in aviation, it’s that you have to always be prepared for things to go south (no, I don’t mean ‘fly heading 180º’).
Life is uncontrollable and will throw multiple engine failures (and other such crises) at you. But once I got around to accepting that fact, I found that there’s a lot that I could control about how to get out and get down from an engine failure safely. Getting over the fact that you are in a bad situation can be one of the longest and most painful things to do, and can result in a complete downward spiral. Short-circuiting that realisation and jumping straight to dealing with the situation is a lesson that is crucial to flying safely.
This attitude should not be mistaken for pessimism. I don’t take an emergency checklist up with me because I think ‘Okay I’m pretty much definitely gonna lose my engine up there.’ No. I take the emergency checklist up because there is a slight possibility that things might not work as I planned, and I just want to protect myself and my passengers as close to 100% as possible. That’s what makes aviation such a safe industry too. (Disclaimer: If I was ever so sure that I was going to lose my engine, I’d probably show my aircraft to an aircraft maintenance technician first!)
The only way to get through a bad situation with minimal damage is by keeping your head. Create a mental checklist relevant for your particular situation, and see what you can control to get out of that situation. And finally, glide down smoothly, butter the bread on that landing, and walk away from a not-so-bad-anymore situation.
Just another day.
-Sooraj