Talking to Yourself
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
They say talk is cheap. As a kid growing up, I heard time and time again, “Don’t talk to yourself—people will think you’re crazy!” Buying into that philosophy was easy for a while, at least until I began my journey training to become a pilot.
Yet truth be known, those seeds planted so long ago were still alive and well inside my brain housing. It certainly lends credence to the Principle of Primacy that states: “What we learn first, we learn best.”
I finally figured it out after becoming a flight instructor and realized, “Hey, after all I’ve been told, I’m really not crazy at all!” Now, looking back on a pile of flight instructor hours, I’ve realized my challenge has become teaching others to not only talk to themselves, but to others as well.
Guess what? Easier said than done!
So you’re probably saying to yourself right now, “Sure, you expect me to believe that?” Why am I reading this—this guy must be nuts!
Hold the phone for just a second. Before you recommend I commit myself to the local sanitarium, please allow me to explain.
PEOPLE DON’T LIKE TALKING ANYMORE!
So what the heck happened? Technology happened—cell phones and texting, tablets and EFBs, social media and DMs, blogging, etc., etc., etc. Starting to get the picture?
It’s a much bigger problem than you might think. Just watch a family of four take a seat at a local restaurant. Out come the cell phones, down go the heads, and the thumbs start flailing away. Not too much going on in terms of conversation.
It’s equally as frustrating dealing with this as a flight instructor. Allow me to explain:
- Reduced calls to Flight Service in lieu of self-briefing
- Getting primary flight students to “talk their way through” a maneuver
- Pilots silently going through:
(a) pre-takeoff checklists
(b) pre-landing checklists
(c) briefing an instrument approach procedure
(d) callouts on the final approach course
(e) what to do after going missed on an instrument approach (the 5 C’s)
(f) announcing intentions to ATC or on CTAF while 10 miles out - Lastly, and perhaps most important, debriefing themselves (and the CFI) following a lesson and discussing important takeaways and lessons learned
Before you get too upset with me, let me just say this is not a universal problem. Some folks do this very well—after being made aware of its apparent importance.
So how do we fix this? One student at a time.
If you’re a CFI reading this, you know what you have to do. Talk to your students, take the time to get to know them, establish a solid relationship, and demonstrate genuine concern and a personal interest in their success in becoming a safe and proficient pilot.
Student pilots (of all varieties), consider this if you will: a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) needs to know what’s going on inside your “ketawba” (brain housing). If you don’t talk, they will be left with no other choice but to question everything you do—it’s their job!
So you see, talk is not so cheap after all.
Psychology Today has this to say about talking to yourself:
“Talking to yourself is a normal, healthy, and often beneficial cognitive habit used for processing emotions, organizing thoughts, improving focus, and boosting motivation. It acts as a tool for problem solving and self-regulation. While generally harmless, excessive or disruptive self-talk should be monitored if it interferes with daily life.”
“Do ya think?” Perhaps that last thought closes the loop with respect to my earlier “crazy person” characterization.
Benefits of Self-Talk
Once again, compliments of Psychology Today (sorry, I’m just a CFI and not a psychiatrist):
1. Improved cognitive performance: Verbalizing tasks can help you focus, remember instructions, and solve problems faster. “Just think of the pilot-in-command implications there!”
2. Emotional regulation: Talking out loud helps manage emotions, reduce anxiety, and improve self-awareness. “I don’t know about you, but methinks we could all use a little bit more of that—especially in single-pilot IFR, even driving on the interstate!”
3. Learning and memory: Speaking aloud aids in learning new skills and retaining information. “Couldn’t have said it better myself!”
So there you have it folks. “Say what you think and think about what you say—and don’t forget to take the time to kneel down and pray.” Especially before your next flight!
Fly safe, y’all!
With over 2,000 hours of instruction—more than 800 as a CFII—Tom brings extensive experience to both student pilots and advanced instrument training. He is an active member of the Colorado Pilots Association, EAA Chapter 72 in Falcon, CO, and SAFE, and serves as a FAASTeam Representative for the Denver FSDO, conducting monthly in-person safety seminars throughout Southern Colorado.
- Know Your Numbers - July 22, 2026
- Talking to Yourself - June 10, 2026
- Budget Buys and Early Bye-Bye’s - August 5, 2024
The Japanese have used a method that they call shisa kanko (“Point and Call” in English) with their Shinkansen high speed trains for years. Multiple studies cite an 85% reduction in errors because the practice leads to neurological activation, multi-sensory redundancy, hyper-focus, and disruption of muscle memory.
I have found that the best, and sometimes only, way for me to remember and repeat long strings of numbers is to say them out loud both when I read them the first time and then when I write them down.I think this also plays a role, for example, when ATC asks us to repeat certain directions we tend to remember something we both heard and said much better than something we just heard.
Tom brought me back to flying after 36 years of life. He knows what he “talking “ about! Absolutely correct to talk to yourself and I would add to touch the parts you are talking about. That also focuses the brain on the task and creates the muscle memory.
My landings and thermalling are always better when I’m talking to myself. The co-pilot is warned ahead of time…
“Very well said!” I said to myself.
This topic makes me think about the book “Thinking Fast and Slow”. Different parts of the brain are used so the memory is aided.
First time I flew the pattern with a different CFI, I busted pattern altitude. I commended that it would be nice if I didn’t exceed TPA. He said you noticed it and are working to fix it. From that point forward I always said what I was doing.
Tom
By way of background, so you know who you’re ‘talking to’. Current and qualified commercial pilot flying the 767 and a Stearman. 24yrs flying jets (A10, F16) in the USAF (yes, I was an IP and examiner).
1. The brief and debrief (especially) are critical, but you only get 50 minutes of useful consciousness from your students, so choose your points, and your words, wisely.
2. Talking in the airplane accomplishes no task, it’s the doing / execution that matters.
– In aviation time matters and wasting brain bytes processing thought, converting that thought into conversation, then converting again into muscle movements / responses wastes a lot of time. I understand not every phase of flight is time critical, but the ones with the greatest impact to safety/living tend to be.
3. IPs and DPEs get paid the big bucks to monitor what’s going on and ask relevant questions if they don’t understand what the student is doing. If your brief and debrief skills are good this should address 80-90% of what you are about to see in the airplane. IPs get paid to catch errors, one shouldn’t rely on the student to tell them everything they are about to do or not do, unless something is non-standard or not in accordance with the brief.
4. Consider this: Would you rather fly with a crew member who talks all the time, or only when the plan changes / something important just happened?
– I fly with guys who talk all the time and it’s distracting. After awhile one tunes them out, just like a busy radio freq or alarm that’s miscalibrated and enunciates when it shouldn’t. I want to hear something when it’s important, and I want to know that when you speak you have something valuable to say. That’s in the psychology manual as well.
I understand that when a student or crew member talks it makes it easier for an IP or examiner to know what’s about to happen (if one assumes the pilot does what she just said, which isn’t always true either), but that’s not the pilot’s job, announcing everything that’s about to happen. Rather, the pilot flying needs to execute, perform an action, move the airplane, we can talk about it in the debrief.
My $0.02…