October 18, 2022 Our Muscles Remember

The Liberty Gazette

October 18, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: One time I was sitting “in the back” of an airliner – where passengers sit – perusing the latest Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, when I happened upon a thumbnail image under a title that got my attention. The picture was small, so I put my thumb and forefinger on it and tried to expand it. Yes, I did. Muscle memory. When we do something routine, we tend to almost do it, even if it’s not in the right situation. 

When I was training for my instrument rating, I thought I was the only one obsessed with focusing on speed limit signs when driving, to be at the exact speed posted when I was abeam a new speed limit sign. I learned that this type of thing is not so uncommon among pilots. That is, we tend to encounter the memories embedded in our muscles, which can be amusing when driving a car.

For example, when driving home after work, a pilot who works for a skydiving company routinely fights the muscle memory to pull the lever for the flaps every time she approaches a roundabout. The roundabout triggers a similar feeling, where her mind is programmed that this is the time to pull up the flaps.

I have wished I could kick the rudder and lower the aileron in a strong crosswind while driving. Especially on a high bridge, like the Fred Hartman. Did you know that if you could make your car take off while driving toward Houston on the Fred Hartman, that you would end up right over the LaPorte airport? It points right to it.

And you boaters will appreciate the thought of “trimming.” Air behaves like water, so it’s no surprise that aviation has much in common with, and much derived from nautical protocols. To improve performance and fuel economy, you trim your boat, raising or lowering the bow, to make the boat more efficient in the water. Likewise, we move the trim wheel on an airplane to adjust the aerodynamic forces on the wings and elevators (the smaller “wings” at the rear of the airplane), which helps us maintain level flight without additional effort. Moving that trim wheel is something we do often during flight, so it can be hard to set that aside once we hop in the car. 

Entering an interstate brings that idea to another level. Increasing speed so that I’m merging smoothly with the traffic makes the pilot mind think of “V1, rotate.” V1 is the speed at which you make a decision in a multi-engine airplane. Traveling fast down the runway, about to lift off, once you surpass a certain speed, if you lose an engine, you have to know whether you would be better off continuing or aborting the take-off. It depends on many factors, one being the amount of runway still in front of you for landing. The decision must be quick, and muscle memory is critical – more important than trying to expand an image on paper.

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