Trying to remember an idiom

[Let'sgoflying!]

The gist of it was, that in an emergency rarely does one have to leap into action. Best as I recall it was something like:
"The first thing to do in an emergency is take a deep breath", or "count to 5".

Anyone remember?

The thought behind it was, many emergencies have been made much worse by people leaping into action without thought, and doing the wrong thing. Ie engine failure, yank the mixture back....on the wrong engine.

 

[Everskyward]

I thought it had something to do with winding your watch. But how many people wear watches that need to be wound these days?

 

[COFlyBoy]

I heard one from a very senior airline captain that went something like "The first thing to do in an emergency is set the clock"

Edit:
Awwww man, Mari beat me by seconds. She must have set her watch.

I still have a wind-up clock in the 6.

 

[wabower]

Joe Biden?

 

[Everskyward]

Edit:
Awwww man, Mari beat me by seconds. She must have set her watch.

I obviously didn't take the time to wind my watch before I answered.

 

[maddog52]

I heard one from a very senior airline captain that went something like "The first thing to do in an emergency is set the clock"

Edit:
Awwww man, Mari beat me by seconds. She must have set her watch.

I still have a wind-up clock in the 6.

We were taught to "Hack" the clock at UPT.

It gives you an extra second or two to collect your thoughts and be sure of taking the proper action. It also gave you an accurate timeline of the event not affected by time dilation perception.

 

[mantakos]

I remember reading a similar idiom in a book about doctors, something like "first thing a doctor should do when arriving at a code blue is take his own pulse".

I've also heard a similar line which I can't remember exactly, but paraphrasing is something like "there's no emergency that you can't make worse by acting too quickly".
-harry

 

[Matthew]

"Don't just do something, stand there!!"

 

[4CornerFlyer]

I thought the same thing Harry. That line was from House of God,the all-time classic medical farce.
Jon

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Perhaps you are thinking of this one:

"When in trouble,
when in doubt;
run in circles,
scream and shout!"

At least that's the one we use where I work.

 

[Dr. O]

At the Theater In The Woods, that exact question was asked of a very senior pilot for one of the major airlines... His answer is a classic...

First, I set my coffee down so it doesn't spill...
Then I run the seat forward so I can reach the rudder pedals...
Then I jab the copilot with my elbow to wake him up and demand, "Did you see that?" while pointing at the offending instrument...

denny-o

 

[Trapper John]

I thought it had something to do with winding your watch. But how many people wear watches that need to be wound these days?

I think that's where the old saying, "He didn't know whether to **** or wind his watch" came from...