"Fly the airplane!" Charlie would exclaim and then take the controls and aggressively yet graceful save my botched approach in a simulated emergency landing. "You could have made it" he would say and then advance the throttle and we'd head off to try again.
One of the first principles I was taught when I started taking flying lessons was to "fly the airplane." My instructor Charlie told me time and time again to make the airplane do what I wanted it to do. Flying wasn't about cajoling, it was about complete domination of the machine. It sounded harsh.
The rationale for his approach became apparent as we started to practice various emergency scenarios and in particular, emergency landings. If the engine quits in a light airplane, the pilot has moments (depending on altitude) to pick a spot to land and get the airplane configured and oriented to land on that spot. With only one chance, close does not cut it. The pilot must fly the airplane on a real-time conceived flight path to a touchdown at a chosen spot. With the adrenaline of the situation (even in simulation) and a ton of variables (weather, altitude, weight of airplane, availability of landing sites, etc.), executing an "off-field" landing is not an easy task.
When I set off on a new adventure, it is easy to get mired in the variables and get a case of "analysis paralysis". Charlie's words travel with me and I focus on isolating the one or two really critical activities and then doing them well. Like magic, everything else seems to fall in place.
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