Dislexic pilots.

gismo

gismo

Touchdown! Greaser!
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iGismo
I had a dislexic moment today in the airplane. I was returning from the airport where I had my annual done and arriving at home base from the west. My field has three runways with a parallel set of 10/28s. Usually I get 10R/28L because it's the longest (I almost always take off from that one) but today I was cleared to land on 10L when I was around 8 miles west. When I got closer I was given helicopter traffic (probably my friend and past webboarder John Lancaster) coming from the south and "landing" 10R. For some reason, I had fixated on 10R as "my" runway. I even remember wondering why the tower would clear another aircraft across my final approach path (the helicopter was on a very close in base leg) but wasn't all that concerned as I was still a couple miles out and could easily maintain separation. And when the helicopter turned final (pretty much right over the end of the runway) and started slowing down while still a few hundred feet in the air, it began to dawn on me that something was amiss. My first reaction was that the helicopter was lining up on the wrong runway and I aborted my landing with a right turn away from the helicopter and final. At the same time I called the tower to report the helicopter flying down "my" runway and as soon as the words left my mouth it finally started to dawn on me that I was the one that had lined up with the wrong runway by swapping left for right in my head. Then instead of chewing me out for my stupid blunder the tower controller apologized for not being able to detect that two aircraft were approaching the same runway.

I used to have trouble keeping left and right correct but I thought I'd gotten past that years ago. I guess it's coming back courtesy of my "advanced" years. I would offer as an excuse that I was a bit preoccupied with checking out whether or not the changes I had just made to my GPS setup had cured a problem the local avionics shop had recently "installed" but failing to focus on landing while on final approach doesn't sound like a very good excuse.
 
Oh well. **** happens. It's this kind of stuff though that'll make you more alert for sometime I'm sure.

I often forget the number I'm assigned...because I'm too stupid to bring somethign with to write with..and quite frankly my memory sucks....So I just end up asking again.
 
jangell said:
Oh well. **** happens. It's this kind of stuff though that'll make you more alert for sometime I'm sure.

I often forget the number I'm assigned...because I'm too stupid to bring somethign with to write with..and quite frankly my memory sucks....So I just end up asking again.
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I use the heading bug on the DG for that. Unfortunately it doesn't have a L/R indicator.:D I've forgotten, are you heading out tomorrow or Saturday? There's supposed to be some serious wx coming Friday night into Saturday morning.
 
lancefisher said:
I use the heading bug on the DG for that. Unfortunately it doesn't have a L/R indicator.:D I've forgotten, are you heading out tomorrow or Saturday? There's supposed to be some serious wx coming Friday night into Saturday morning.
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I just drove to KRST and moved an airplane to KTOB...I'll be leaving Dodge Center-KTOB at about 10:45 AM or so tomorrow... To IA24..which is some private airport that doesn't appear to be in my GPS...and I will pick Tony up there around noon. From there we should be able to go nonstop to Gastons...weather/fuel/winds depending.
 
I think it is a common problem for all pilots regardless of mental status or advancing age
All we can do is to adopt things that will help keep our keester out of that sling:
Write down all clearances as they are given - you are less likely to write down the wrong thing as it is being said.
If two pilots, read it back to the right seater and have them compare to what they heard (and what they wrote down).
If there is an approach to that runway back it up with all available navaids.
Do a heading check on final (not a great one for parallel runways).
I bet others have some good ideas.
I find myself more and more, saying and hearing from the pilot I fly with "This is a no flap take off, no flaps selected, no flaps indicating, thats what we decided, right?" and things like that all flight long; its a constant stream of verbal redundancy that can drive you nuts but might just prevent a problem one day. You can do this when flying solo too, constantly talk it in your head (or out loud if no pax, or pax who wouldn't question your mental stability!)
 
Verbal redundancy is a good thing! In helicopters, which are prone to do strange (and generally bad) things when nobody is at the controls, I like to use the military "three times" protocol for handing over the controls to another pilot:

Pilot A: "You have the controls"

Pilot B: "I have the controls"

Pilot A: "You have the controls"

The controls are not released by pilot A until those three statements have been completed. The same protocol is used if pilot A wants the controls except that it's initiated by "I have the controls".
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Speaking of "dislexic pilots..." Don't you mean dyslexic? ;) :D :rofl:
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Yeah, maybe it should have been dyslexic pilots who can't type. :D
 
When I hear "left" or "right" I try to picture the runways in my head instead of just the word itself. If you get the left, there's also the trick of holding up your left hand to form an "L" with your forefinger and thumb. Learned that from a dad who was teaching his kid left from right. I do this as a joke sometimes but it works. I also found that visualizing the numbers works when getting a frequency change. If I picture the numbers in my head I remember them better. Ok, so maybe it's just me and I'm strange. :dunno:

I don't know about the age thing. The worst screw-up I made confusing left from right was when I was about 30. Luckily I was forgiven.
 
Everskyward said:
I also found that visualizing the numbers works when getting a frequency change.
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"I see and I forget. I hear and I remember. I do and I understand."
 
"Cessna one seven uniform, taxi to runway one six"
"Taxi to one six, one seven uniform"
(a short time later)
"Cessna one seven uniform, I see you holding short of runway three four..."

--Kath
 
a few years back when i was a student doing a XC i was departing a class C airport and they gave me clearance to turn to heading 300 after takeoff..but for some reason i set the heading bug to heading 030 and a few mins after takeoff i was getting yelled at by a controller...it could have been a really bad situation but luckily it wasnt busy at all in the area...
 
smigaldi said:
They say the mind is the 2nd thing to go with age. I can't remember what the first is though :D
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Or as one of my college professors put it (aiming at a bunch of undergrads) - "The mind is the first thing to go. Actually, it's the second, but you don't need to know that." :D
 
When I am handed off, I make sure to dial in the new frequency in the standby position on the navcom as it is given to me, and then read it back from the standby window. In terminal area, bouncy IMC, very busy etc, this helps a lot.

i also write down freq's in the sequence used.
 
“Can’t you tell the difference between left and right?” my English teacher screamed at me in front of an assembly hall full of seniors. In a blizzard of panic I suddenly realized for the first time in my life that I could not. “Raise your right hand!” she commanded. I was never sure whether she had been trained by the Gestapo or the Marines. You just didn’t want to cross her. Blinded by terror, I visualized holding a pen to write and held the imaginary implement toward the ceiling, hoping that my ambidextrous ability to write with either hand was not betraying me.

I spent many years knowing I had left-right confusion and that the circle and line character found in many words could be any one of “p”, “b”, “d”, or “q” before ever hearing the term “dyslexia”. The wedding ring on my left hand became a crutch for identifying direction. The trick of looking for a "L" in the angle between your thumb and index finger assumes you can discern which direction a "L" is supposed to point.

Now as a pilot, when I hear “left” or “right” from a controller, it is instantly translated into “pilot-seat” or “copilot-seat” successfully. I know that it takes me slightly longer to process a direction than other people. Scientists say that dyslexics brains spend 10 times the energy of other people in processing reading.
 
I once did the same thing. I called the tower a couple times and said I was lined up for Right, not Left. I guess I just wanted to be cleared to land on Right. When I didn't get an answer I just jogged left to the correct runway.

I have a mark from a pencil lead impaled in my left hand when I was about 5. I used that as the indicator most of my early days. I think I only finally nailed it when I started driving. LEFT turns are the ones where you have to wait for oncoming traffic.

I still get directional dyslexia. My head is still spinning about why I think the Gaston's runway is on the wrong side of the river - even though I had seen it when I flew over years ago. It only helped a little that I have a runway 24 at home.
 
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Geesh Lance! It's confusing for all of us.

Find myself writing it on my knee board or repeating it until I'm lined up on the correct runway. Tower guys seem to be just as concerned. Approaching El Paso on late afternoon, tower gave me 26 right. About two miles out, they asked if I was lined up for 26R and I didn't know what to say; so, I said words to the effect of landing on the runway to the right. Always wondered what else I should have said.


I've read somewhere that the difference between a better pilot and one that has an accident is the better pilot catches mistakes earlier. Sounds to me like that's what you did.

Best,

Dave
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Geesh Lance! It's confusing for all of us.

Find myself writing it on my knee board or repeating it until I'm lined up on the correct runway. Tower guys seem to be just as concerned. Approaching El Paso on late afternoon, tower gave me 26 right. About two miles out, they asked if I was lined up for 26R and I didn't know what to say; so, I said words to the effect of landing on the runway to the right. Always wondered what else I should have said.
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THey ask in El Paso because it's easy to mistake Biggs AAF for ELP. More than one air carrier pilot has lined up for the wrong airport. Oops.
 
Yea Bill, I've heard lots of stories about unintended landings at Biggs. I'm kind of paranoid 'bout this kind of stuff and usually use the Garmin by putting in the runway threshold and dialing in the runway course which draws an extended centerline from that runway.

In this case, I just didn't know how to answer tower. If you are visual and they ask you if you're lined up on the right (as in rightmost) runway, how does one respond if they are? Just felt ackward.

Dave
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Yea Bill, I've heard lots of stories about unintended landings at Biggs. I'm kind of paranoid 'bout this kind of stuff and usually use the Garmin by putting in the runway threshold and dialing in the runway course which draws an extended centerline from that runway.

In this case, I just didn't know how to answer tower. If you are visual and they ask you if you're lined up on the right (as in rightmost) runway, how does one respond if they are? Just felt ackward.

Dave
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Easy enough "Affirmative, we're lined up for the right side."
 
mikea said:
I think I only finally nailed it when I started driving. LEFT turns are the ones where you have to wait for oncoming traffic.
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In the USA... driving in the Caymans (and other places) you have to look in the other direction. :goofy:
 
When they renumbered the parallels at JAN from 15/33R/L to 16/34/R/L there was concern among the local controllers that pilots would confuse them with the 16/34 at HKS on the other side of town. So far it hasn't happened (although it did a few times before the renumbering). Go figure.

wsuffa said:
THey ask in El Paso because it's easy to mistake Biggs AAF for ELP. More than one air carrier pilot has lined up for the wrong airport. Oops.
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Well at least you were going the right direction. Saturday when I left PLK for Gaston's the active runway was 29. A plane called entering downwind for 29 while another was waiting to take off. The plane on downwind called base and then final for 29. Then I heard the pilot waiting to take off say "plane on final, your landing 11 not 29". The pilot on final just replied, "O well, its to late now" as his wheels touched down. I wonder why he did'nt see the BIG white numbers he was landing on.:dunno:
 
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