Jekyll and Hyde

The book tells the story of one benevolent Dr. Jekyll by day who turns into the murderous monster Mr. Hyde by night, terrorizing the streets of London. While it’s an entertaining story, it has stood the test of time because of its commentary on the dual nature of man. We humans can be kind, generous, helpful souls one minute, and the very next, we are imagining the demise of those around us. Certain situations just tend to bring out the alter ego…like baseball games, parenthood, and Black Friday shopping.

Unfortunately, flying a metal box thousands of feet into the air is one of those situations that can bring out the worst in us. One of my pilot friends told me that his first instructor had been a Mr. Hyde of sorts, super likable and friendly on the ground, but an angry terror in the cockpit, yelling at students when they made mistakes. I wasn’t surprised to hear the story. It’s actually a phenomenon I’ve noticed in multiple cockpits throughout the years, both general aviation and commercial airliners. My theory is that it happens when a pilot is uncomfortable with the airplane, or something about the flying environment is providing stress, i.e., the weather, inoperative equipment, and so on.

One of my most memorable Mr. Hyde experiences was when I was a new right seater at a Part 91 Beechcraft King Air operation. The captain was pleasant enough on the ground, a never-met-a-stranger type. We were flying some passengers into Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is surrounded by rising terrain with a lake on one side. Add in low IFR conditions, and it was the perfect scenario for Mr. Hyde to show up. Boy, did he! The captain was flying and intercepted the localizer before starting down on the glideslope. A couple of miles from the runway, he called out in a tone we will call less than friendly, “I’m going to need some callouts here.” Y’all, I had absolutely no idea what he wanted, so I asked for clarification. The more experienced, airline-trained version of myself now understands that he wanted altitude callouts, like “one thousand feet to minimums, five hundred.” The newly minted commercial pilot version knew no such thing. His response included some yelling and colorful language that shall not be repeated here. Of course, when we got inside and I pulled myself together, Mr. Hyde had disappeared, Dr. Jekyll back in his place. “So, what’s for dinner?” he asked. “I heard about a really great steakhouse in town.” The captain was just not entirely comfortable in the airplane. Add a little weather stress and a crew that could have benefitted from some training, and you bring out the worst in someone who was ordinarily a nice guy.

Let me tell you about another flight of mine that was the perfect time for Mr. Hyde to make an appearance. I was flying with AOPA columnist Catherine Cavagnaro for aerobatic training. She is truly a gentle soul and the last one you would ever expect to monster up in the cockpit. But talk about your classic high-stress situation. I am no aerobatic pilot and also maybe not the quickest student. Catherine and I were doing spins that day, and I had a little purse that I wasn’t sure about bringing along in her Cessna 152. “My bag doesn’t close all the way. Is it OK for me to bring?” She said it shouldn’t be a problem, as spins are a 1-G maneuver. Well, for most people they probably are. But I pushed the elevator too far forward in the recovery, causing our speed to build rapidly and everything in the back cargo area to end up in a different spot than where it started. I bet you think I’m about to tell you Catherine started screaming at me and grabbed the controls, but she didn’t. She was the picture of calm, smoothly talking me through the recovery procedure. I think I even remember her laughing at one point, maybe on the fourth or fifth spin rotation when she saw me white knuckling the controls. Here’s how she managed to keep her cool: First, she is an absolute master of her craft, knowing the ins and outs of spin aerodynamics that only someone with her level of dedicated study could achieve. Also, she kept a margin of safety, stopping all aerobatic maneuvers by 4,000 feet agl. For Christmas that year, she sent me a purse with a zipper. A sense of humor, that woman. I still carry the purse around with me.

If you’d like to avoid becoming a cockpit terror, advanced planning can help keep stress levels manageable. That includes conservative personal weather minimums, becoming an expert on your airplane, and always giving yourself plenty of altitude and airspeed to correct any dangerous conditions before they become life-threatening. And the next time you’re in the air with a Mr. Hyde, remember not to take it personally. That’s just the fear talking, and Dr. Jekyll will return soon enough. But, until that person gains more experience, you may consider finding another co-pilot. 

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