PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS
NEVER
TRUST THE BUGGERS THOSE WHO WERE PAYING ATTENTION WILL REMEMBER THAT FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT PAX.
I’VE been trying to figure out how the five personality traits recognised by psychologists affect the safety and harmony of a flight. Here they are again.
THE SAD STORY OF DAFT DONNIE If you fly long enough you will find yourself really scared in an aeroplane. It happened to me when I was the big cheese at 43 Air School. The cause of the trouble was a guy who I will
1. Conscientiousness
call Donnie so as not to upset his friends and
2. Agreeableness
family. He was a big, tanned, tough outdoors sort
3. Neuroticism
of guy from Zim who had served in the bush war.
4. Openness to experience
He seemed a hell of a nice guy, I liked him from
5. Extraversion
the start. He had recently settled in South Africa and had come to 43 to do his PPL training.
You have three main lines of defense against them:
The first hint of trouble was when Paul Leaker, my very sharp ground-school lecturer, told me
•
Brief them properly.
that Donnie had raised his hand during a PPL
•
Treat them like talking cargo.
Nav lecture. Paul asked Donnie what he wanted,
•
Never trust the buggers.
thinking it would be a question about navigation. Nope. Donnie said the most extraordinary thing.
Unfortunately at the extremes of some of the personality traits we can find some seriously dangerous individuals. Neuroticism is the worst.
He said, “I’m not here.” Paul, somewhat taken aback, asked Donnie what he meant, to which Donnie simply repeated, “I’m not here.”
28
February 2021
