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Comment by falcolas | Hacker News Reader

Personal opinion: If you have the tendency to involuntarily hyperfocus on things, re-consider your interest in flying.

I had that happen to me once while landing in high wind, and it's only thanks to my instructor that I'm still with us today. Another time I was so focused on my landing pattern that I blanked out the tower instructions and pulled in front of a landing passenger plane (at MSP). And those are only the dangerous incidents, not the dozens of other minor incidents.

For me, the traits which make me an exceptional developer made me a terrible pilot. I can't regret choosing development of flying, just the money I lost realizing that I was not a good fit.

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Situational awareness is one of the primary tenets of aviation. It is a skill, and like any skill it can be developed and refined.

Young pilots will start out flying in their own reality, one that is completely non-representative of what is actually occurring outside. Over time the gap between what you perceive is happening and what is actually happening will narrow to the point that you can operate safely on your own.

I write this not to contradict you but to prevent your post from discouraging any would-be pilots from pursuing what can be a very personally rewarding and enriching hobby--or career.

And apologies in advance if there is some sort of diagnosed mental condition or quality at play here but ideally that is something that is picked up by FAA medical examiners before students go out and solo.

Do FAA medical examiners have a suite of tests for tendency to zone out or hyperfocus? Do they measure how fast those skills are developing to measure the total cumulative risk experienced during the learning period where the situational awareness skill hasn't been learned? I'd be kind of interested in those; I'm pretty sure I'm a lot worse on both of those metrics than most people I know, but don't have a diagnosed attention-related mental condition or any evidence harder than "I nearly killed myself a few times just in the two months I had a learner's permit before deciding that cars weren't a good idea".

No, at least not that are administered in the regular course of getting aviation medical exams. General health (with particular focus on cardiovascular and neurological/consciousness concerns), eyesight, and hearing are the big ones.

I wouldn’t totally beat yourself up. Multi-tasking is one of the toughest and most important aspects of flying. You get better over time, but it is different than the intense focus in programming. The key is to just keep moving your focus: your scan. This takes practice and comfort. You have to learn to force yourself to keep scanning and never stopping. Practice makes it easier. And fear does a great job of making this tough in the beginning. Your brain doesn’t function at full capacity when flying and only experience makes this better. And missing radio calls is always a problem. A slow scan and task saturation makes it almost inevitable. Again, more comfort and a faster scan makes it easier to catch radio call.

You may not have been flying regularly enough. To get qualified, you should really dedicate a few months and try to fly multiple times a week. Currency is critical. Spacing things out makes it tougher and more expensive in the long run. If you really want to learn to fly, don’t give up because of a slow scan. Just work on it and fly as much as you can.

I nearly ran into a big purple hot air balloon when landing a Cessna 152.

It was down and to the right and it was exactly in line with a row of evergreen trees so I think I could be forgiven. And it wasn't like the balloon was speeding along.

My instructor saw it immediately then again he did tell me to land as a passenger plane was approaching the other end of the runway.

I've dabbled with programming for at least 33 years but I don't seem to have the patience or focus. I love it but i just can't concentrate enough to follow complex sequences.

I suck at guitar too a lot of things, I'm good at sucking at many things.

Coffee works wonders my friend.

I once hyperfocused/spaced-out-got-lost-in-thought while riding my bike down a hill. Coming into a turn, I snapped out of it, quickly realizing my two options were to fly over a cliff or crash. I chose crashing. I hit the brakes, flipped over the handle bars, and broke two arms. To this day I'm afraid to build up any significant momentum while riding my bike, and I didn't even get back on a bike for 8 years.

If I were a pilot, I would space out and die a horrible death.

It's generally referred to as Target Fixation, it's a common issue amongst cyclists and motorcyclists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_fixation

The first advice I ever give to anyone new to mountain biking: "Look at where you want to go, never lock up (focus or elbows), and always look further ahead than what feels natural."

You don't always need to be focusing on an object for this phenomenon to occur. Your bike generally follows where you're focusing, so if you're looking towards the exit of a turn you're more likely to reach that exit. If you focus too close to the trail you also end up increasing your center of gravity, making you more unstable.

Thanks for this. I've always been interested in flying and have only taken one lesson. However, I also have tendency towards hyperfocus and this comment has sufficiently frightened me.

Don't let it discourage you. If it didn't work for him doesn't mean is not going to work for you.

I'll agree with this, but definitely recommend working with a good CFI, not just a prior student building up hours.

It is the job of the flight instructor to keep you safe as you learn to fly. Multi tasking on the right things, and making those things as natural as driving a car, is the goal of flight instruction. Once you achieve this, your instructor might allow you to take the final exams.

Learning to fly is like riding a motorcycle while controlling a sailboat. At first everyone is overwhelmed. But with practice it becomes second nature.

Instrument flying is a significant step up in difficulty with respect to multi-tasking and attention division.

Can you elaborate on these stories? What were you hyperfocused on during your high wind landing, and what should you have been noticing that you did not?

"If you have the tendency to involuntarily hyperfocus on things, re-consider your interest in flying."

I understand OP talk about a personal opinion but that is really bad advice from falcolas and dghughes, which with a grand total of a few hours of actual flying should have no business at all misleading potential wanabees pilots.

You don't know how to fly with a PPL, yet alone without it during your lessons. You learn flying every day, every minute, every seconds of practice. From zero hours to 30,000.

The truth is "hyperfocus" is a common trait of EVERY baby pilot out there. That is just the way it is, you were not born with flying skills. So you take a few lessons, you fly the plane but you make so much mistake and tend to be overwhelmed, "behind the plane" every time, some can't even manage the radio by themselves before 10 hours. That is expected, that is why there is this guy on your right to teach you how to fly, it's actually a job you know. So, fast forward 100 hours you won't believe what you can achieve with your airplane, but you still does not know anything about flying, just continue to learn. Then there will be this IFR thing when you will be IMC in the soup shouting your first ILS solo to minimum, yes on a Cessna 172 if you want to. This day you will feel overwhelmed once again. This game never end, but this is absolutely the best game around.

"For me, the traits which make me an exceptional developer made me a terrible pilot." Pretty BS statement. Let's forget the "exceptional developer" selfie part, I have the complete opposite experience regarding IT pilots. I would say this very traits is just a great asset for pilots, had falcolas not chickened early on he may have pushed to the IFR part and challenges, he would have discovered a better world than IT.

You may read this guy on this very topic : http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/

Direct to the point, for the HN crowd : http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/avi...

Just leave your computer and live the life. Please wanabee pilots, don't listen to chicken talks, anybody can do it, go ahead, take this flight lesson, it will be one of the best time of your life !

I think it's helpful to hear about people who dropped out. If you only talk to successful pilots that's an obvious case of survivorship bias (in some cases literally).

For me I gave up on my lessons due to a combination of being a bit worried about my absent-mindedness and finding it not as much fun as I'd hoped, given the expense. (Not to mention meeting my girlfriend.)

I agree that like most things, it can be done if you put your mind to it. But everyone has to decide for themselves what their priorities are. I found that I'd rather be in the passenger's seat. Being the one with all the responsibility (particularly in a complicated airspace like the bay area) feels too much like work to me, and I think it would still feel like work with more experience.

I recommend taking a beginning lesson to anyone, though. You can do more than you'd expect.

I've got 500 hours and fly in the Bay all the time. It stopped being "work" a long time ago, and now it doesn't concern me at all to fly wherever I want to go. I wouldn't think twice about flipping on the mic and telling ATC what I want or need.

The money I will never get back and I'm still not sure it's worth it. But I sure have enjoyed the ride!

I have enough stick hours to have obtained my instrument and commercial ratings. It was enough for me to realize that this wasn't a passing problem that would go away with experience, it would (and did) get worse as things became routine.

But thank you for the "chicken" insult, it made me laugh.

I also tend to involuntarily hyperfocus. I don't dare read my phone in the car, because I forget I'm in the car. I am also employed as a programmer, and I tend to enjoy debugging at times.

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