June 14, 2003
To the Class of 2003
It’s truly an honor to address the Class of 2003 at Torrance High School, nearly 31 years since my own graduation. The year 2003 will always remain a very special one for me. My own daughter, a 1999 Tartar, graduated from college this year, so I’m filled with the same love and pride that all of the family members and friends in this auditorium must feel for you tonight.
When I was invited to speak to you, I initially wondered what in the world would I could talk about that could have any impact on your future. During a recent layover I had dinner with my former English teacher, Mr. Griggs, and my old friends Coach Hollis and Mrs. Hollis, and asked them for their advice. Mr. Griggs suggested that I talk about all of my brushes with death, the fiery crashes, hair-raising emergencies and other close calls I may have been in. He said you guys would eat this kind of stuff up. Fortunately, I haven’t had many of those. Mrs. Hollis, on the other hand, suggested that I talk about all of the wild international jet setting, over-indulging, sex-filled parties that she’s heard goes on in hotel rooms around the world during layovers. I haven’t been to any of those either. Coach Hollis wanted me to--, well, I don’t even want to go there! I really don’t have any wild stories to tell you, either from flying or from layovers. I’ve had a fairly normal life and safe flying career so far.
It donned on me that the reason this may be so is due to a professional technique that I use every second that I’m in this uniform. I’m confident that it’s the reason I’ve been able to remain safe and avoid conflicts, not only as a pilot, but in my personal and financial life as well. It’s the foundation of every professional pilot’s way of thinking and it’s called Situational Awareness. We call it S.A. for short. Pilots love to use a lot of acronyms like that because it makes us sound really cool and smart. Sometimes I’ll come home from a long trip and be talking with the wife and she’ll have this awful blank look on her face. It’s then that I’ve discovered I’ve been talking about how ATC screwed up and the TCAS activated on my last Category 3 PRM ILS approach into LAX. She’s constantly saying, “You’re home now, flyboy, knock it off with the pilot talk!”
Anyway SA, or Situational Awareness, is anything but a laughing matter. It’s the cornerstone of safety and professionalism in my industry. The lack of it in an airline pilot’s attitude can literally mean the difference between life and death. It’s very similar to what we’re all suppose to be doing while driving a car. Except in the three-dimensional world of aviation, and to a certain extent the multi-dimensional world in which you are about to enter, it can include a lot more situations.
SA for all pilots, regardless of whether paid or not, is the practice of being constantly aware of everything which is around us or which should concern us-- where we’ve been, where we’re going, our fuel status, the weather trends, and the constantly changing list of options which are always available. It means using all of our senses, all of the time, common sense probably being the most important.
I’d like to describe for you a typical FedEx flight, say from Los Angeles to New York, explain to you what my duties are as a Captain on the DC-10, and try to relate how some of the concepts of SA that I use during the trip might be relevant to your own life as well.
I’ll report for duty at LAX an hour before our scheduled departure and meet with my co-pilot and second officer. We become a team, and even though I make the ultimate decisions as Captain, I depend heavily on their wisdom and input. You’ll want to do the same with your co-workers, friends, and family as you get started down your own path in life. We check the weather, look over the jet’s maintenance records, review the flight plan, and complete other necessary pre-departure paperwork. When everything looks good I put my signature on a document called a Flight Release that now basically puts 100% for the responsibility of that $50 million aircraft square on my shoulders and nobody else’s. I have to be 100% certain of the legality and safety of the flight from the time I sign that release in Los Angeles until we leave the aircraft in New York. Your own signature will be one of your most important and powerful assets you’ll ever have and must be used just as responsibly as I do in my job. If misplaced or misused, your signature will get you into more trouble than you can even imagine. As you start signing for loans, buying automobiles, negotiating contracts, starting your own businesses, or filing lawsuits, make sure that you’re 100% certain about the financial safety and legality of that document you’re signing. You don’t have to be a lawyer or read every line of fine print. Just know what you’re signing, what you might be committing yourself or your family to, and don’t get caught in a legal requirement to go down a path you don’t really want to go down. And for crying out loud, rip up those credit card applications you’ll soon be bombarded with. Signing for money that you don’t have is the surest way to get into a financial jam.
The next thing that all three of us do is to go out to our aircraft and make sure it’s airworthy inside and out. And like the paperwork, I have to know that it’s100% safe, legal, and ready to fly. This attention to your own vehicles will be so very important. Overlooking a bald tire on a car, waiting for that brake job on the truck, holding off on the bilge pump for your boat, even something as simple as a windshield wiper replacement could have just as dire consequences as if I saw and ignored a fuel leak as I approached my aircraft. There is just no excuse for not keeping your vehicles safe and operating right. And for those of you who don’t keep your vehicles legal with DMV by applying for title or paying your registration on time—GOOD LUCK TO YOU!
Once our preflight is done, the freight is loaded, and we’re ready to close the doors, I’m presented with another important form called a Weight and Balance. On any aircraft, the fuel, passengers and cargo must be within certain weight limitations and must remain balanced throughout the flight from takeoff to landing. On large cargo jets such as the DC10 it’s even more critical. In life, it’s mandatory. Balance, and the ability to keep the weight of responsibility within limits in your own life, is absolutely essential. I can’t emphasis this enough. You can be the world’s smartest engineer, richest CEO, most accurate CPA, or most devoted soccer mom, but if you don’t have the other facets of your life balanced to help hold you up, something’s going to break. In my aircraft, it’s a normal procedure to transfer the fuel weight around between tanks while enroute for better economy and to stay within the design limits. It’s going to be no different for you. Every one of you has individually entered this world uniquely designed, able to do different things and carry different weights during different stages of your life. Make sure the weight of all of your efforts, energies, and priorities are placed in the rights spots and the right times. Every once in a while consider changing them around a little. As you become parents, leaders in your community, volunteers for a cause, coaches for your children’s teams, and executives at your firms, don’t loose sight of the requirement to keep your priorities balanced and to not place too much weight on any one aspect of your life.
Next, we coordinate with the mechanics on the ground, start the engines and request taxi and takeoff instructions to the active runway from air traffic control. Being able to listen to instructions on the radio, not only our own clearances but those of other flights, is a very important part of SA. It’s mandatory that all three of us in the cockpit listen and understand what is expected of us throughout the flight, especially if we become distracted by other matters, which often happens. It’ll be no different in your own life. Start off right by listening to and understanding what others expect of you. Whether it’s myself accepting instructions from an air traffic controller or a supervisor giving you instructions for a project, it’s imperative to your future that you learn how to understand and execute the tasks which will be given to you from here on out. While not a life and death matter, being able to carry out instructions will have a definite impact on the success you’ll hopefully enjoy in your chosen career. Don’t get fired because you don’t know what’s expected of you or assume you heard correctly but aren’t quite sure. Do not assume that when your college professor says tomorrow he really means the end of the week. You can kiss those days goodbye. And for those of you entering a military boot camp after graduation that might not be listening to me about this concept of understanding what’s expected of you—GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALSO!
Once we’re airborne and on our way to the east coast there really isn’t much to be done except for radio communications and occasional position reports. Everything runs smoothly on the autopilot, the adrenaline of the takeoff has worn off, cups of coffee are poured and we settle back into routine matters and small talk. Contrary to what you may think, after you get into the air, flying an airplane is really not that big of a thing. Any of you in this room could do it. It’s no different in a jumbo jet than it is in a small Cessna. When you pull back on the stick the houses get smaller, when you push forward the houses get bigger. The challenging part is when the unexpected pops up. There is an old saying that flying is endless hours of pure boredom interrupted occasionally by moments of stark terror. Once you are finally on your way and cruising along in your chosen fields, it’s good to settle into your particular position in life, slow things down a little, take a breather once in a while, and relax. But not to the extent that you forget where you are or where you’re going. Always expect the unexpected, be ready for it, and have alternate plans to fall back on. This can be a crucial time for mistakes so don’t ever let your guard down.
We constantly evaluate the craft we’re in throughout the flight. Here comes the most exaggerated metaphor of my speech. I use the word craft in the sense of an aircraft. I suggest you could use the term as your craft in life, your trade or your profession. In our craft we’re constantly scanning the engine and navigation instruments to make sure all is well, listening to the engines, watching for warning lights indicating mechanical trouble. I’ve always got an airport in mind that I can descend to in the event of an emergency. Check things out once in a while in your own craft once you get going. Look for warning signs and listen to what’s happening. How’s the career industry doing? Who’s hiring and who’s firing? Is engineering still going to be as good of a profession as you thought, is the trend in art appreciation still advancing, will computers take over your duties, how are the laws changing? Good SA allows a pilot to constantly be able to modify plans and change either the route to the destination or the actual destination itself. I suggest that each of you, over the course of your own lives and careers, constantly ask yourself, “Am I headed in the right direction, is this the course I should be taking to get where I want to go, is this the best thing for me and my family, what will I do if my plan doesn’t work out, do I even want to still go there?”
Each and every one of one of you, while encountering the unexpected, will make a few miscalculations and mistakes. I can’t tell you the number of times I didn’t put on enough fuel, miscalculated the weather, or just plain forgot to do something which required a diversion from my original destination. We’d be here all night if I had to tell you of the number of mistakes I’ve made in my personal life! If an emergency occurs or bad weather pops up ahead of me during my flight I’ve normally got but just a few intelligent options. I either deal with it, go around it, or I get my butt on the ground and come up with a better plan. When these crises or mistakes erupt for you, learn from them, embrace them, but don’t keep going down the wrong path once you’ve discovered them. Continuing on a course, which you’ve discovered has more risks than rewards, is just plain stupid.
Military pilots will tell you that SA involves a constant vigilance for friends and foe, where the bogies are and where the support aircraft are. Good SA absolutely requires that you know of everyone and everything around you, who they are, what their intentions are, and what your plans are to deal with them. The threat of terrorism and high crime rates should already have you physically looking around a lot. There are other threats to watch for, however. For those who haven’t already witnessed it, and you parents will know what I’m talking about, you will soon enter the wonderful world of job competition, savvy politics and general backstabbing. And it will soon descend upon you like a bad dream. Whether you enter a corporation as an executive, the military as a soldier, the church as a minister, work as an engineer, or coach a soccer team, you will want to constantly assess who is around you, what their intentions are and what you should do about your relations with them. Unlike dealing with peer pressure, you won’t be able to “just say no” to your supervisor or walk away from those you don’t personally like. You’ll have to learn to work with and get into and out of situations with a little more finesse and forethought. Keep those persons in your life who are most interested in your success, not theirs.
We cross the nation in about five hours, hopefully a very dull five hours, and we begin to plan for and set up our radios and instruments for the approach and landing in New York. For a number of reasons, this portion of the flight is statistically where we screw up the most. A lot of times we’re tired, we’ve been pretty bored for quite a while, or we’re preoccupied with the rush to land and either get home or to the hotel. SA requires us to constantly know where we are in the lineup to land and to anticipate where the controller is taking us. The controllers are not perfect either. Good pilots and many human lives have been lost to inadvertent flight into a mountain or building that the pilot absolutely knew was there, or descending right into the ocean or a lake because of a preoccupation with a minor mechanical malfunction. As in life, never give up staying aware of the situation you are in and where you are in the scheme of things. As you approach the landmarks and milestones of your life you may be both excited and exhausted at the same time. Try to remain vigilant and steady in your plan until your goal is achieved. Then relax.
And that’s exactly what we do once we’ve taxied into our gate at New York, shut down the engines, accomplished some more checklists, and conducted a post flight inspection of the aircraft. Usually the crew and I meet for a meal once we’re at the hotel and it’s not uncommon for us to rehash some of the mistakes we may have made during the flight. Review your own performance once in a while also, especially after making mistakes. Don’t be afraid to look a poor situation or a bad decision right square in the eye. Don’t sweep it under the rug or ignore it. Deal with it, learn from it, and then get over it. It’s just that simple.
I hope you’ve understood some of the analogies I’ve made tonight and can take some of these suggestions about Situation Awareness with as you begin your own lives.
In closing I would like to say that I wouldn’t trade my days at THS for anything. It’s where I first kissed the woman who later became the mother of my children. It’s where I learned some hard lessons about success and failure, about sports and winning and losing, about the huge difference between popularity and self-esteem. I was also very lucky. I knew exactly what I wanted to do for a career and developed a passion for it. Each of you has the ability to do the same thing. If you haven’t already, find that activity or career that you can really develop a passion for. Develop a smart plan to get there and then head straight for it. If any of you are student pilots already, or you’re interested in becoming one, I’ll be around afterwards. Don’t hesitate to introduce yourself to me.
Good Luck Class of 2003. Thank you again for letting me talk to you. And may God Bless each and every one of you on your own journeys through life.
