Patience, not patients, starting over.

One thing that time....

I have been in the medical field for 33 years now. Having worked in pre-hospital, hospital, and medical technology/education, I feel as though I am pretty good at what I do. I've worked in busy urban fire department based EMS as a firefighter/paramedic and rural EMS systems with long transports where every step of the protocol is utilized. As an RN, my specialty has been critical care working in Level I Trauma Centers in the ICU taking care of some of the sickest patients in the region, and the world (thank you Cincinnati Children's!) I still approached every day as a learning opportunity. In medicine, advances in technology and treatment modalities develop daily. With all of these advances and changes, experienced providers have to learn new procedures, but the learning curve is usually not that steep, there is a solid foundation of experience and education that the clinician can draw from. With these new processes, typically there are ranges to work in, but not a lot of external factors to take into consideration. I am not downplaying what we do as clinicians, the stress and pressure faced takes a toll, and sometimes affects the decisions being made. That does however get easier with time and experience.

When I walked into Mauna Loa Helicopters in February 2024, I brought with me 4.5 hours of fixed-wing experience which roughly translates to 0 hours of rotor wing experience. I was starting fresh. The ground lessons were difficult but so interesting to me I dove in head first and soaked up that knowledge. I've done well academically in everything I have done. Not because I am a genius, or exceptionally smart, but I work hard and study hard. I had plenty of late nights and early mornings trying to grasp an aerodynamic principle or memorize Part 61 Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) making sure I knew what I could and could not do as a student pilot. The FAR's are sometimes unclear and open to interpretation by the reader, if you ask two CFI's you often get two different interpretations, so as a student, it can be confusing. With all of the book knowledge, there are no environmental factors that change that information. Also, there is no danger in getting a question wrong, worst case scenario is you have to take an exam over, the sun will rise tomorrow.

Stepping in to the cockpit of the helicopter was a different experience. Every flight is new, exciting, nerve wracking, and often over stimulating. Every flight is also different. Changes in wind speed and direction, density altitude, visibility, and aircraft performance due to all of the above. So a normal approach at 13:00 hours may be different at 13:10 when you make that next lap in the pattern, and totally different tomorrow, when the wind is now a 45° crosswind from the left and 15knots. The procedure may be the same but the execution is definitely different. Even with time and thousands of flight hours, it can still be challenging, so I'm told. Environmental factors can make a normally routine flight, strenuous.

In order to grow, we often have to step outside of our comfort zone. I leaped! During that jump, I seemed to have forgot to pack my patience with me. As an experienced healthcare provider, things seemed to come easy to me. I grasped concepts and techniques easily. This has not been the case in my flights. I often feel frustrated or "Why can't I do this?" For example, with helicopters, it is said it takes the average student pilot 6 - 10 hours to hover. After my first flight, I acknowledged it is a difficult task. After my second flight, I was upset with myself thinking I was a failure. It took me 9.5 hours to hover for the first time, and it was only for about 15 seconds. I did it though. I now have about 110 hours and setting the aircraft down over the oil pan at the end of a flight still kicks my butt most days, but I am more accepting of that.

I've realized the importance of exercising patience in my training. It is however a work in progress. There are days where I am frustrated with my performance during a certain maneuver of the flight. They say it takes five positives to overcome a negative. I can guarantee that during a flight you have a thousand things going on, you will have more positives than negatives. Focus on the positive and build on what you perceive as a negative. Every experience is a learning opportunity. Be patient, you will get better. At the end of the day, a less than stellar flight is still a flight. I get to experience the big island of Hawai'i from 1,500'. I'm flying in paradise. Remember, it's about the journey and not the destination. Take a moment to stop and smell the plumeria!