Training to be a pilot is one of the most exciting and challenging experiences. As a student pilot, it is quite natural to be completely overwhelmed by the number of things that have to be mastered and successfully used to fly an aircraft safely.
But easily, the most challenging skill of them all is to be able to make a perfect landing. Any student pilot dreams of descending smoothly down the glide path at a perfect angle.To smoothly round off just beyond the runway threshold and gently put down the main wheels of the plane to roll down the runway to complete a perfect landing.
The perfect altitude on the final approach, the correct air speed, engine power, the wings held perfectly level, the visual picture of the runway centreline as you descend, these are instructions that every student pilot must have been corrected on endless number of times.
But finally, that perfect landing is something that you as a pilot have to feel out and get right. All the training in the world can only get you so far. The final steps in a landing are all simultaneous and call for the maximum alertness and reflexes on the pilot’s part.
So it was a matter of great delight when I made that perfect landing sometime ago. However that joy was short-lived. My very next landing saw me floating down the runway for a long time before I touched down way beyond the point that I actually wanted to. The next landing saw me touch down and balloon up before coming down with a thud for a final roll out. And it carried on like this. Some landings were great. Many were not so great. And some were downright awful. The vagaries of the winds, other traffic and the multiple instructions from the ATC on busy days only added to this inconsistency.
I was becoming increasingly despondent and apprehensive about my landings. Throughout the flight, I found myself going through the motions with a hope and a prayer that I would have a great landing, these were only fulfilled some of the times.
One day after a particularly rough landing, when the wheels just slammed into the runway, I could not stop myself saying:
"That was a terrible landing!"
"We'll talk about that," said my instructor.
During the debrief he made me aware of various places where I could have made a slightly different decision which could have contributed to a smoother landing. For instance: putting on the flaps a little earlier, a steady descent on final approach, a nose correction to allow for a crosswind, a power correction to be at the right altitude over the airport wall: any or all of these could have made a difference.
I found myself beating myself up for not keeping all this in mind. I had almost lost all hope of ever being able to make consistent perfect landings when my instructor said something that stopped me in my tracks:
“Every landing that you walk away from with both you and the aircraft completely safe should count as a good landing. Keep that in mind always, and work on improving from there.”
That was an epiphany. If I had to make those beautiful, perfect landings time and again, the only way to do it was to give myself credit for every safe landing and then look back to see how to make it even better.
As we go through this journey called life, we often forget to give ourselves credit for all that we do right. In our quest to achieve what we think is the epitome of success we become too self critical. Being kind to ourselves and acknowledging all the things we do well could be a great first step to help us move the needle faster towards that ideal outcome that we so desire. Self-compassion is a worthwhile quality that can yield rich dividends in flying and also in life.