When you start your flight training, it pretty much goes without saying that it would bode well for you memorize your emergency procedures. I talk often a couple of critical ones that literally saved my life, but what I haven’t stressed for a while is the concept of pushing the clock.
What the heck is “pushing the clock”? What are we going race who can rattle off the emergency procedures the fastest?
No. Pushing the clock simply means that when you are in an emergency, it helps to step back from it for a couple of seconds (no more, you obviously can’t spare more than a couple of seconds and it’s all you need anyway) to see what’s going on around you so that you can implement and not be in a state of panic.
When you’re in an emergency situation, pushing the clock a bit is not only a good thing; it can actually save your life. Now, aviation accidents- particularly military aviation accidents- are not as frequent as they once were and part of the reason for that is because aircraft systems have gotten to be so reliable. Still, there’s something to be said for relying too much on automation.
Now, I’m not saying that flight control computer on your F-18E or F-35 will go berserk on you and deliberately try to kill you, but systems malfunctions do happen. The kicker is that only 5% of all military aviation accidents are actually blamed on system malfunctions…even though a system malfunction is most often how it started. The other 95% are attributed to pilot error. Yep. It was the PILOT’S OWN FAULT, because he didn’t push the clock. He panicked and in the process botched a procedure that would have saved the aircraft or even his own life!
So, when you’re in flight school training for that jet cockpit slot that you so desire, you’re going to be straight up memorizing a lot of emergency procedures. If you want a taste of what this is going to look like, trust me when I tell you that will be a time you’ll be glad to have invested in the Afterburner Club. Here, you’ll get a MAJOR head start on your career that will help you SMOKE your competition.
Here’s some of the things we can give you the inside tips on:
- Access to the manuals for several to today’s fighter jets
- A heads-up look at flight control procedures
- Emergency procedures
- Maximum performance speeds
- Performance envelope
You read that right! We can you where to find ALL of these for your favorite fighter jet aircraft! You’ll probably be scratching your head when you first look at it, but don’t worry…we’re here to answer any questions you have on the performance envelope and emergency procedures of any aircraft that you want to get in the cockpit of someday. That’s what we do here on the Afterburner Club!
So although pushing the clock is a good thing in an emergency situation, it wouldn’t be good when planning and implementing for your future. That’s procrastination, and I’m here to tell you right now, that is something that fighter pilots DON’T DO!
So get on board with the Afterburner Club today and get that inside edge!
Semper Fi,