Are you aware that you are sitting in an exit row?
First memorable flight ....
The air in our plane was heavy. I was young, eight or nine I think. Even so, it was obvious to everyone, even the infants onboard that this was a stressful situation. We were on approach to an airport in FL, having descended from 30+ thousand feet to our current altitude (looking back on it we were probably at about 10-15k feet in the air).Regardless, our plane had descended right into the heart of the type of storm cell that only Florida can produce. The clouds were black, the thunder was loud, and the lightning would have been blinding if the torrential rain weren’t blocking the view.
The pilot had asked everyone to strap in tight, which was silly because the extreme turbulence had long since caused everyone to double-check that placebo (we all knew that if gravity had its way, the belts weren’t going to do much for us).
The plane dropped suddenly with a loud BANG, then regained some altitude. We dipped our wings, and the engines revved and settled in unpredictable patterns.
Like I said, I was little. My mom was crying, the woman in the seat next to us was crying. It was scary. I think that’s when I first started to dislike airplanes.
A couple of years later ....
We flew again, my mother and I. Once again solar radiation heated the earth’s crust causing warm air to rapidly rise and replace the cooler air above it. Turbulence. Again.This time I was a little older and my mom gripped my arm with a strength usually associated with heavy machinery. It wasn’t as bad this time, but still it was scary. My mom was in tears, but this time I held my ground and tried to reassure her. “Something is wrong”, she said. “That man over there is PRAYING!”.
I looked over and sure enough, he was praying. Then again he was a priest, which I pointed out to my mother. “It’s ok. He’s supposed to do that”.
Several years later ....
I entered the airport with EXTREME apprehension. The memories of past flights and frightening unplanned drops in altitude played in my head with Michael Bay-esque special effects.In the intervening years since my last flight I had remembered prior trips like a fisherman retelling a story about his last catch. Each time I remembered it, the turbulence got worse, the engine started cutting out, and towards the end there was fire. I had convinced myself that, twice in a row, I had barely escaped a certain and gruesome death. Sufficed to say, I wasn’t in a hurry to try my luck again.
However, I had recently bought a boat and the only way to get it was to fly to South Carolina. One of my best friends and co-workers was traveling with me (to his detriment). Adding to the stress was the fact that we were flying out on Friday the 13th under a full moon. I am not normally superstitious, but when it comes to airplanes, you can’t be too careful.
The other thing I am not, is a drug addict. However, that night and on that flight I had more chemicals in me than a hot tub. My doctor had given me happy flying pills and I took them like they were Pez. I could apologize to my friend for years and it still wouldn’t be enough.
A couple of years later (my honeymoon)....
Like or not, there are evolutionary aspects to men and women. At some point, women like to feel beautiful. Likewise, men like to feel MANLY (Arrrgh!). Well, there are few things manlier than getting married and being the protector, and sometimes the provider.There are few things less manly than grabbing your new bride by the arm and screaming to the remaining passengers in the plane, “That sound you are hearing is our plane and it’s 1.2 million moving parts! They are making that sound because they are losing a battle with physical forces that have been in play since before our planet was formed! Those ancient forces would like nothing more than to reclaim this aircraft by drawing into the breast of our planet at a high rate of speed!”
Tonight....
I am sitting on an airplane for the millionth time in the last 6 months. I do this really often these days. I have been desensitized to air travel (thankfully). I no longer feel that stress. However, that doesn’t mean that I now enjoy this. I just have the ability to fly without being concerned that my last moments will be spent in a freefall and that I am going to die sitting next to a huge dude in a toupee, sandals with socks, and a muumuu.I have instead refocused my hatred of flying, to a hatred of airports. Somehow, when I am in a terminal, I seem to attract people who are dripping fluids and are flaking skin. Sometimes they also have objects in tow that confuse and frighten me. That isn’t luggage lady! It’s a dog kennel with shoes in it instead of a dog (yes, I saw that tonight).
The whole process is silly; the angry people and the jockeying for seats, despite the fact that the seats are assigned…
However, at least now I feel better about the whole flying part. I have confidence in the 1.2 million moving parts in the aircraft, because I know that about 1/3 of them are spares in case the primaries fail. I also know that the plane’s computers are not powered by Microsoft software. So, I no longer worry that we will slam into a mountain while the pilot tries to reboot the plane because it froze up.
In some ways, I aspire to be like the engineers that created this highly redundant aircraft. All things being equal, these systems are really quite advanced. A lot of forethought went into them and all the systems were engineered with a “plan for the worst, hope for the best” mentality. Presumably, no one failed to consider disaster recovery because it wasn’t in the budget.
Despite the redundancies, there are still plane crashes every once in a while.
I think there is a lesson there for all of us as we consider our own businesses. I also think the lesson applies to all aspects of our businesses, not just technology. In an airplane, lives are on the line. Even with the best engineering, and anticipation of problems, and built in redundancies…. bad things still happen once in a while. So, it’s critical to learn from them when they do, and then engineer the lessons into the next revision.
So, to all of you out there that might read this I say to you, DON’T BE FOOLED! I assure you that if you talk to your employees, you will find that lives are on the line in your businesses too. It may not be about whether hearts are beating, but it is about the day to day lives of the people who work for you.
You need to act like an engineer designing a plane. Plan ahead. Don’t fail to invest in the redundancies that can save your employees life styles, and work to ensure that when you do have a failure you are learning from the mistake.
Thanks for stopping by, and while you are here, feel free to look through our website. You never know, you might find something that will help your plane stay in the air !!
Cheers!
Posted by Todd Knapp
Labels: Engineering, Todd
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