When I began my journey towards an aviation career, I did not realize how much of an impact it would have on my approach to life. Learning the mindset of what it takes to be a good pilot sort of re-wired my brain — rather, it matured and polished it. Pilots have to constantly assess risks and mitigate them. They have to study others’ mistakes and learn from them. While doing all this, they have to remain calm. In the face of imminent death (which rarely happens in aviation) we have to stay calm. If we stay calm we will likely survive. Panic leads to chaos, and chaos leads to a poor outcome. We are constantly analyzing situations and making contingencies and judgments to guarantee a safe outcome for the flight. This mindset has transferred to my every day life in a positive way, which I did not expect.
One thing I wanted to reflect on in this particular case is flying by instruments, which is a skill that is not required of every pilot, but that every pilot should acquire and keep sharp. Essentially, the human body does a very good job maintaining orientation when we can see. But flying often involves ground obscuration. When this happens our head swirls and gets dizzy and we think up is down and turning is straight and straight is turning. This will lead to loss of control, which is fatal — unless we trust our instruments — unless we fly by our instruments. The airplane has an artificial horizon and supplementary instruments that we use to maintain airplane control. Sometimes our body is telling us we are turning or tumbling or falling, when in reality the plane is perfectly fine. The only way to keep flying is to fight our body’s inner voices and focus on the instruments and trust the instruments. The sensation will pass and eventually we will get visual with the land. It’s not an easy skill to learn, and sometimes it’s very difficult to ignore our body’s voices. Professional pilots keep refining the skill and go through recurrent training to make sure they stay safe in the air carrying their passengers. The FAA requires regular training under the instruments to make sure pilots who have the training don’t lose it.
While I was meditating on this, I thought of a parallel with one of the Gospel passages. In the Gospels, we read that the Apostles are on a boat on the sea of Galilee when a squall descends on them. They are fighting the storm and despairing when an apparition appears on the water. It calls to them, and St. Peter responds. They realize it is Jesus and he calls Peter to walk out to him. On storm seas. Men typically do not walk on water, let alone stormy ones with rising and falling swells, but Peter does. Peter is able to do this when his focus is solely on Jesus. But Peter starts to lose focus and he remembers the storm and his head swirls and he looks away and sinks. Jesus lifts him up and questions him, “Why did you doubt, ye of little faith?”
Peter learned the same hard lesson pilots have to learn. We have to focus on our instruments. If we do not, our head gets dizzy and it swirls, and we get lost in the weather to our demise. Peter does not drown because his focus returns to Jesus. Jesus is like our attitude indicator in life. He is the horizon we are flying toward. He keeps up oriented correctly as we weave our way through the world. The world is full of sin and distractions and philosophies, but only Jesus is the way to life. If we fly through life without out our focus on Jesus, we will lose control. Our head will swirl and up will be down and down will be up. How many people do see living this way, thinking right is wrong and wrong is right. Black and white are swapped; man and woman is confused; even simple things like math don’t add up. We will think we are straight when we are turning. Then we see we are turning and we start to feel like we are falling so we pull back, then we stall. Then comes the crash.
Just like Peter, we have to keep our focus on Jesus. When we lose focus, when we listen to our inner voice, we will start to lose control. We can always gain it back, but we have to do it quickly. When a pilot loses focus on his instruments, he has a small window to recover. There is a window, but we have to catch it. Our lives are like this airplane. Our souls are like this airplane. We do not know the hour or day of our death, but once we lose control, recovering our soul is not always possible. There is always mercy and repentance for those who call upon it, but in the moment of the crash will we remember to call on Jesus? Or will we have so lost sight of him because we listen to the voices of the world that we forget to do so? That would be catastrophic.
This is easily avoided by maintaining our instrument skill. We have to keep our focus on Jesus. All pilots have to learn how the instrument works and conform their flying to how the instrument works. Once you do, you can read it correctly and always fly safely. But if you read it incorrectly, the instrument will seem to be telling you falsely. Then you stop trusting it, trust yourself, and end up crashing. The instrument was just read wrong; when we rely on ourselves, we will not succeed. Jesus preached a way to salvation. He said he is the way, the truth, the life. No one goes to the father except through him. No one can go through him except through his way. What is that way? Well, we have to learn it. We have to study the scriptures; we have to read catechisms; we have to listen to the saints. There are many opinions on which way Jesus taught, but he taught only one way. There is only one way to read instruments. We have to study the only way that is true and that will keep our horizon oriented correctly so we can fly to our destination safely.
Peter had to learn this when he walked on water. He let the world crowd in and tell him he couldn’t walk on water, that it was impossible or there was another way other than focus on God. Yet Peter was lied to. His senses tricked him and he almost drowned. But he recovered when he returned back to his instrument. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and our instruments represent the horizon that does not change. Focusing on these things will keep us rooted no matter the tempest that is raging. It was thought flying in the weather would be impossible, but we figured out a way to safely do it. People thought salvation was impossible. People thought walking on water was impossible. But there is a way.
The miracle is also a small sign of the resurrection, for in the resurrection we will be able to walk on water and pass through walls. Grace perfects nature, and life in Christ elevates it. This is something to look forward to. What is the Beatific Vision? Heaven itself is the soul’s vision of God. A vision so pleasant we will be in bliss and perfect communion with God, the angels, and our neighbor. Our soul will be forever fixated on God. Pilots learn to do this for their airplane, and we can apply this skill to our lives as we navigate the mire of the world.
St. Paul tells us there will be many false prophets and false Christs, and even angels seemingly from heaven preaching false things. Many will be deceived. The inner ear deceives the pilot in instrument conditions. The world deceives us. We have to resist this by trusting our instrument. We have to trust God. Let our vision alone remain on that thing and we will never suffer loss of control.
Leave a Reply