IM SAFE

There is an old mnemonic used in general aviation to take a "personal assessment" of oneself prior to going flying. I used to preach it to my students because many, many pilots have bought the farm because their minds were not on the task at hand. I think it's easier to let these guidelines fall by the wayside in the airline world, in part because there is an additional pilot to pick up any slack, and in part because "the show must go on". Today, however, I'm in a hotel in Syracuse reviewing this very important rule of thumb, which goes:

I - Illness (am I sick?)
M - Medication (am I taking any medications?)
S - Stress (am I under any job/life/family stress?)
A - Alcohol (have I been drinking - this should be a no brainer)
F - Fatigue (am I tired?)
E - Emotion (am I experiencing any extreme emotions?)

I can say that today, I am in violation of at least four of these (no, I haven't had anything to drink). Two weeks ago, my daughter was so kind as to bring home the flu from school. After 36 hours of pure hell, and 4 more days of sickness, I got kind of better, took the trip I'm currently on, and got hit again with a vengeance over the last two days. By the time last night rolled around I was beaten down, and of course I had the last leg into Syracuse. I actually managed a very nice landing, probably because I was laser-focused on that runway and the hot shower I knew was a 5 minute crew van trip away. Either my timing was off or everything was just moving in slow motion for me. Once the gear and flaps were down, I felt like we crept along for a good 10 minutes before touching down, and we were the only plane around. A smooth approach and landing nonetheless.

The coup de grace: I just had to walk a mile to the closest drug store to get a variety of medications recommended by my doctor (nothing unapproved, but still). After making several "stops" during my walk, I knew I had failed the IM SAFE checklist miserably, and it was time to call crew scheduling. I should have known last night: I was too sick to eat my crew meal..........that was a joke (I'll save crew meals for another post).

Living the dream...