S2 E4 Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

In this episode

My flight rostering goes crazy as I fly as often as I can to build my Left-hand Seat hours, some passengers clutch their pearls as I take control of flights, and I get the opportunity to lend my voice to our Helicopter safety videos for the very first time.

Transcript

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Enid Otun: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to season two of, if women were meant to fly the sky would be pink, episode four, every cloud has a silver lining. I'm Enid Otun. Yoruba is one of the three main languages spoken in Nigeria, and is relevant here since my family comes from the south of Nigeria and this is my native language. All my family on my father's side spoke it fluently. Well, probably everyone except me. In the Yoruba tradition, Proverbs are wise sayings, passed down through generations to teach historical lessons, good morals, and instill social values. There is a Yoruba saying, Il ba tj w l bsi, which means the king's palace that got burned and added beauty to it, which in turn means, every cloud has a silver lining. In this episode, my flight rostering goes crazy as I fly as often as I can to build my left hand seat hours. Some passengers clutch at their pearls as I take control of flights, and I get the opportunity to lend my voice to our helicopter safety videos for the very first time. On my return from the US, I was straight into the left hand seat with a variety of training captains, as I built up my command under supervision experience. This meant managing the flight as its captain and making all the decisions. I had in theory started this some months before. But now with an airline transport pilot's license under my belt, it felt more authentic. It was an adjustment for everyone else as well, especially down the line, as now although three bars sat on my shoulders, I had to show that I was capable of making the decisions for the entirety of the trip, as a full Captain would. People would often ask how it was to have to be right all the time about everything. In fact, that was not the case at all. Even captains were human. What needed to be shown amongst other things, was the thought process behind decisions as well as the ability to carry them out with that degree of confidence. All people make mistakes. Some are more costly than others. Some are learning experiences, and others do not learn from them at all. But most human error accidents are caused by a chain of events, where that chain is not broken, at any stage before the accident occurs. One of my mantras throughout my flying career, which will probably not be much of a surprise for you, is that if I was sat in an aircraft, and not learning anything new, then it would be time for me to leave. I can honestly say that for the length of my career, as in life, I learned something new every day. I spent a good deal of my time off watching TV documentaries about aircraft accidents. I know, It's such a fun hobby, Lucy loves it. But anyway, I can tell you that the vast majority of these accidents happen because of a chain of events that could have been stopped at various points, but weren't. Sometimes it's because the copilot was afraid to challenge the captain. The captain made an error. And the consequences were dire. There is no room for arrogance or overconfidence. I believed strongly that you always had to have a very healthy amount of respect, for mother nature, and for your aircraft. In later years, I would always try to teach my students and co pilots, that the aircraft was an inanimate object. It didn't care if you were having a bad day or you were off your game. If you are not ahead of it and in control, it would kill you. Harsh, maybe, but true. And I was to see it many many times throughout my career. Those skills have saved my bacon a few times since my flying days as well. A few years ago, Lucy and I were traveling from Keswick to Kettlewell, Cumbria to North Yorkshire. And as often happens, the weather changed swiftly from a bright cold day to a snow blizzard. We were driving along some extremely narrow roads when this happened, and unfamiliar with the area, we took a turn that led us up a narrow hill with a steep drop to one side. Visibility was poor and the road was becoming incredibly icy. We could see the precipice of the hill ahead of us and the prospect of meeting another car on the road was terrifying. Potentially, I would have had to reverse down a steep, icy narrow road in low visibility. My flight training kicked in. Lucy was by this point, turning white and both of us were slightly petrified. I decided to turn around and go back. That in itself was a tough decision, but I knew I had to break the chain when I had the chance, and when I still had some opportunity to save the situation. It was one of the most nerve wracking three point turns I've ever done. But we just about made it, the relief was immense. Shortly after this, we stopped for petrol and recounted the experience to one of the staff at the garage 'Oh Christ, that road', he said with wide eyes, 'we never use that road in bad weather, I guess they forgot to put the sign out'. Er, you live and you learn. During this particular time in my career, I was to learn a lot from an extra ordinary number of people to whom I owe a great deal. This next level was intense, and I would often second guess myself again, as I had often done at the start of my career. This time, however, the nagging self doubt would be dealt with on a more positive level. Just changing a seat position was enough to change your mindset in a significant way. Even though I had a training captain in the right hand seat, it had to make no difference to my decision making. I was being assessed on a lot of things, not only what I did well, but also any mistakes I made. As long as I could recognize and identify them and recover. My transition was going well, and as part of this, I was learning to correct the continued invisible behavior from others, who could not accept seeing a woman in charge. I called it the invisible behavior, because whenever there was a decision to be made, which required the captain's input, I would suddenly become invisible to them. This was in spite of a very clear mandate to all supporting staff. that a senior first officers transition to the left hand seat, part of that command training process was to make sure that all queries be directed to them. Unless the senior training Captain intervened. I realized that if they could not be convinced to follow the guidance, then I would have to force them to comply. Interestingly, I never had to do this by raising my voice or in anger, that would have somewhat defeated the purpose. Instead, I would signal that if the process was not directed to me for my attention, then we would not be continuing the flight and this would result in very expensive delays which would subsequently be reported. When I was a captain under supervision, my training captain's became wise to this. When someone came to the cockpit with a question, they would frequently ignore me. Luckily, the training captains would pretend that they were naive co pilots and redirect the question to me, making it really clear who was actually a captain on the flight. Whilst on a regular scheduled trip to our mid stop destination, Warri, I was approached by one of the helicopter training captains who I knew in passing. He took me to one side and asked if I would be interested in lending my voice to some of the safety videos due to be rolled out in the next few months across our Nigerian helicopter operations. I felt honoured, but I certainly have no experience in this field, so I wasn't sure what to expect. A team would be arriving to record the audio against a video presentation. And this could be done at our fixed wing operation in Lagos. All I had to do was familiarize myself with a safety briefing script, which will be provided along with a newly produced video. All passengers and staff transitioning on offshore, had to watch a safety video prior to boarding the helicopters. I have to say, that when the day came to record the script, it wasn't ideal. I'd developed a cold and even with Sudafed, my voice was deeper than it usually was. One of the local team was very helpful and pointed out that this was probably a blessing in disguise, as I actually sounded like a man. 'Sigh" Let's just say that he had to sit out the recording as far away from me as was physically possible. cold or no cold, my right hook was not affected!!!!. I must admit that for a first try at this, It wasn't half bad and I had enjoyed yet another distraction. It would be really strange in the coming months for me to hear, me, reading the safety briefings in the helicopter operations lounges, for some years to come. Thank you for listening. As always, your reviews and comments are very much appreciated. Thank you to Lucy Ashby for the editing of this episode. If you would like to ask a question or make a comment then please do so on our social media sites. We're on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, or send us an email. Our email address is the skyispinkpilot@gmail.com or visit our website, www.skyispink.co.uk. In the next episode, I go back in time to a story that had a great impact on me both as a person and as a pilot. Thank you and goodbye