178 Seconds

In the sky, your senses often betray you.

One of the most common killers of pilots is inadvertently flying into clouds. In such a situation, you’re likely to die if you make the mistake of listening to your body.

To survive, you need to ignore your instincts and pay attention to what the aircraft is telling you, no matter how wrong it may feel.

This is easier said than done, even pilots with thousands of hours frequently die because of this mistake.

The average time in which a pilot loses control after entering such conditions is 178 seconds.

I think about this number a lot.

The cockpit of an aircraft is the freest place I’ve ever experienced.

I have never experienced agency more directly than when alone in an aircraft. There are few times in life where the cumulative decisions you make in the span of minutes is so determinative.

Unlike anything on the ground, when alone in a cockpit, no one can save you. The only person you can rely on is yourself.

And your decisions are cascading: laziness, or haphazardness on the ground can kill you despite doing the correct things in the air. Or, vice-versa: flawless preparation saves no one whose hands shake at the controls.

And sometimes, despite doing everything to your best judgement, you still end up flying into weather. Whether you panic according to your senses, or maintain reason, will be the difference between crashing and not.