Performance Pilot

Book excerpt: Do you want to be a better pilot? Do you want to improve your judgment and skills in training, tests, and throughout your career? Why do the best pilots consistently perform to a higher standard? It is the mental game and preparation that separate the good pilots from the high-performance pilots. Professional athletes have relied on sports psychology and coaching for years to help improve performance. Pilots too can benefit from mental strategies, but until now there has been scant aviation-specific content on how to prepare to fly. In Performance Pilot, noted performance coach, Ross Bentley, and professional aviator, Phil Wilkes, reveal aviation-specific procedures, techniques, and strategies to help you methodically, deliberately, and more effectively prepare for, conduct, and evaluate your flying and consistently perform at the highest level. For pilots just starting out, Performance Pilot can help you create a foundation to build upon and use throughout your flying career. The lessons and techniques are equally relevant to pilots at any experience level, whether recreational or professional, civil or military. In short, this book will make you a better pilot. REVIEWS FROM PILOTS "I''ve had the opportunity to fly large four-engine transport aircraft on all seven continents, from combat in Afghanistan to remote ice runways in Antarctica. Every flight demands the highest level of performance from the crew to ensure safe operations. As a military flight instructor, I have flown with pilots of all experience levels. It is amazing to see the difference between pilots that prepare and those that don''t. This book has techniques for all experience levels designed to help any pilot develop their skills and performance. For those just starting out, the techniques in this book can help create a foundation they can build upon and use throughout their flying career. In short, the strategies in this book can help build better pilots." Lt Col Brent Keenan, USAF, C-17A Instructor Pilot & Squadron Commander "This book is relevant to any recreational, professional or military pilot looking to enhance their own performance and skills. As a current instructor of F18 fighter pilots, this is certainly a book I will recommend to all my students." Squadron Leader M A Saunders, RAAF Fighter Combat Instructor "Plenty of books describe the technical aspects of flying airplanes, but the human performance psychology has largely been ignored. There is very little information for pilots on how to improve on high performance skills needed for high-stress and high-workload types of piloting. This book addresses that gap and gives pilots an understanding of the best and most efficient techniques on improving their aircraft handling in a way that will garner real results without needing to turn a propeller. I only wish I had this book years ago." Anthony Crichton-Browne, Airbus A320 Captain, competition aerobatic pilot & aviation podcaster "During my training as a military pilot, I utilized some of the strategies described in this book. However, my personal implementation was haphazard and lacked the methodical and deliberate implementation required to apply them in an effective manner. This book describes the structure needed to effectively apply these learning techniques as well as introducing many new and complementary ones I had not considered. I am sure that my aviation training and subsequent career would have benefitted greatly had this text been available at the time." Jaimie Tilbrook, Former RAAF C130 Hercules Captain "Reading and practicing the advice in ''Performance Pilot'' will help enhance your airmanship. I know that after any of my flying students or colleagues have read ''Performance Pilot'', I''ll sleep better in knowing that their flying careers will take them much more safely throughout their local skies and beyond." Andrew Musca-Unger, Grade 1 Flight Instructor & glider pilot