AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2025 - 47

approach it. Similarly, a pilot needs to read
the weather and anticipate the conditions
of the runway he's landing on. At the same
time, he must understand the aircraft's
limitations as much as his own, to have
a clear picture of what the machine's
behavior will be.
EYES ON THE PRIZE
Expert surfers frequently say:
" Wherever your eyes are looking, that's
where you'll go. "
My flight instructors, back when
they were guiding me through approach
for landing, hammered into me that I
had to focus on the line of the strip and
lock my eyes on the aiming point.
These are two approaches to the
same idea. Countless times when
surfing, I fell forward on a board while
trying to " pop up " and soon realized I
was looking at the wave's flats instead
of locking my eyes down the line. This
is especially important for any advanced
surfing maneuvers. If you're not looking
at where you're supposed to go, you
won't be able to explore that wave's full
potential, and you risk falling off your
board and wasting a good ride.
Applying this same principle on
approach to land in mountain operations,
pilots who don't focus on the right
aiming point might end up too high or
too flat, land too short, or float down the
runway. Another mistake pilots often
make in mountain runways or unimproved
strips is failing to keep focus
on the line of the strip, which might
cause the aircraft to veer off the runway,
especially in crosswind landings.
Some runways in Papua have excessive
crowns making them extremely hazardous
if not landing right in the middle,
especially when they are wet. Because
of the absence of a painted center line, it
can be tricky to visualize this reference,
especially in curved runways. If the line of
the strip is not established early on in the
approach, and then kept for the remainder
of the approach, the result is usually a
landing off the center. The pilot should be
No matter how much you've read and studied the theory
behind an activity like flying or surfing, it cannot fully
prepare you for the sensations of the actual experience.
cross-checking the aiming point with this
imaginary reference by looking up and
down the strip as many times as needed,
ensuring alignment till the moment of
flare. Only then should the pilot move his
eyes up and focus on keeping that line all
the way up the strip.
In surfing or flying, we must remind
ourselves where to look until it becomes
second nature. But this raises a new
question: Why is it so difficult to keep
our eyes where they should be? I think
there are two big reasons: fear, and a lack
of good training.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD
TRAINING
In both flying and surfing, training
should come first. Awareness and
knowledge transferred from instructor
to student or from senior surf buddy to
surf buddy are crucial for a successful
outcome. For me, a smooth landing off
the center line is as bad as a bounce on
the center line. A good instructor will
instill their student with discipline and
a drive for perfection, to nurture good
habits early on.
Everyone knows learning good practices
from the beginning will contribute
to good airmanship. Poor transfer of
knowledge (or acceptance of poor student
performance) will obviously be
detrimental to any activity. If your landings
are missing finesse as much as your
surfing (or worse yet, missing finesse as
much as my surfing), you should start
thinking about where you've been placing
your eyes. Knowing will enable you
to perfect the art of surfing, or flying, or
any number of other activities.
DON'T LIVE IN FEAR
Another factor that plays a huge role
is fear. Fear creates what's known as a
" fight or flight " response (or, for pilots,
sometimes a " fight in flight " response).
No matter how much you've read and
studied the theory behind an activity like
flying or surfing, it cannot fully prepare
you for the sensations of the actual
experience. The sound of a wave, its
towering size, a short runway, or a strong
crosswind; all of these can be scary the
first time we are exposed to them. And
that's when we're likely to forget the
theory we studied, as instinct takes over.
Our survival instinct will tell our
eyes to look at the immediate threat.
On a steep wave, inexperienced surfers
will tend to look straight down the wave,
scared of falling off when seeing the
wave picking them up. Inexperienced
pilots can tend to flare high when
seeing the ground rushing up during a
landing. On mountain strip operations,
inexperienced pilots (or no-recentexperience
pilots) can be to be too low
on sloped runways. They fail to keep
their eyes locked on the aiming point
of the runway, fail to assess the relative
position of the aircraft to the beginning
of the strip, and subsequently assume
they are too high. The result is a flat and
dangerous approach using lots of power,
usually at the last portion of the landing,
not leaving much room to abort.
Overcoming the fight or flight response
takes years of practice, like any other activity.
But hands-on training, along with
experience and exposure to new situations,
will help reduce the stress induced by our
fight or flight response.
There are many similarities between
flying and surfing. I am less skilled as a
surfer, but that's OK because it's also much
less problematic to jump off your surfboard
amid a maneuver. Still, I believe that surfing
made me a better pilot, and flying made me
a better surfer. Andre Pinto documents
his flying adventures in Papua, Indonesia,
on his YouTube channel " A Pilot's Home. "
AOPA PILOT / January 2025
47
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2025

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