I don’t like to wait. When I see a possible problem it’s against my nature to do nothing. Call me over-reactive if you want, it would not be so wrong. Being so is not always a help when it comes to flying. In some situations waiting a bit is the best thing to do. Immediate action can come too early and make the situation worse, more complex, or prevent it so solve by itself. Under other circumstances all information is simply not at hand when the problem is detected. Having a better than average ability to detect problems is fine, but it must be combined with sufficient patience to wait until all information is available to build a good solution.

The aviation domain requiring patience is handling of flight plans. In Europe, EUROCONTROL is centrally processing all IFR flight plans and some specific constraints make patience an important virtue. While it is possible to delay a filed flight plan the system does not allow for anticipating a departure. ATC can anticipate departure on demand, but what goes in the background is a cancellation and re-filing of a new flight plan with the earlier departure time. Cancelling a flight plan also means loss of any associated slot and the risk of receiving a new slot well after the new (supposedly earlier) departure time ! When it comes to IFR training flights, it can be tempting to try getting an earlier departure if one of the legs was shorter than expected. But before requesting an earlier departure, fly the approach. A go-around can make it longer, not to mention a longer than expected de-briefing. Other traffic at the airport can also make the turnonver longer. Being stuck for hours because of missing your new departure time would be silly… particularly if the orignal one was fine.

If you fly interceptions using the autopilot, you know that some patience is also required. As all automated regulators, autopilots are a trade-off between reactivity and stability. Interceptions are a critical phase and almost all autopilots slightly overshoot the ILS localiser. Glide slope interceptions are even more subject to overshoot. Half a dot deflection above glide-slope is no exception before the GS mode of the autopilot engages. Accepting a too large overshoot is not good but a pilot must know his autopilot and how to make the difference between a failure and a normal interception. Disengaging the autopilot at such a critical moment induces a significant increase of workload. It’s worth giving the autopilot a couple of extra seconds before hitting the disengage button.

Another domain requiring patience is communication with ATC. Being on short final without a clearance to land is stressing. But as long as the preceding aircraft is not clear of runway, the tower can not clear you to land. Asking for a clearance, explicitely or via a “short final” call, can only result in a “continue approach” answer. This could even consume the time the controller needs to give taxi instruction to the preceding landing, possibly hindering the issue of your own landing clearance. Sometimes controllers can not answer immediately to a pilot’s call. He can be co-ordinating a clearance with a colleague on the phone, or simply doing something else. Give him some time before repeating your request. And for the sake of good communication listen before talking when changing frequency.

A final example of situation where patience is the sole option is weather. Any pilot blocked by fog or stratus has no other possibility than waiting. It’s also important to resist the temptation to take-off at the first sign of a possibility. Doing so is the best way to find yourself locked on-top, or VFR in IMC. My level of patience and resilience is one of the many aspects of my life that were improved by flying.