tps said:Perhaps it has to do with the few years of flight training I took 20 years ago. They really drilled the "division of attention" and "don't fixate" messages in. The work load in the airplane cockpit is, on average, much higher than the work load in the driver's seat, but pilots usually manage it fine. Since then, I've noticed that some people never develop the skill to divide their attention appropriately to prevent fixation while performing tasks such as driving. Although I never learned it in driver's training, this would be a good thing to include.LEAFer said:If I was merely listening to talk radio it's no big deal if I miss something (even a second or two) and I am easily inclined to ignore the radio if a traffic situation requires more attention.
This is the best advice for driving I've read. Getting fixated on a "problem" when flying or driving is mighty dangerous. Passenger aircraft have been flown into the ground while the captain and FO were arguing over which radio channel to use. Remember the two morons who overflew their destination by some 1 hour while they were dicking with their laptops? I have found that with my advancing age, I tend to become distracted or fixated easily and literally have to force myself away from a thought such as "wonder why anyone would paint a car that color?". This is a danger to all older drivers, btw, that's because we tend to think about things a lot rather than just instinctively do them. My personal behavior while driving is to emphasize situational awareness and keep cabin distractions to a minimum. .. the bare minimum. No talk radio, specifically. I've driven and flown cross country while listening to taped books and really didn't like that experience -- I felt that my attention was so divided that I couldn't really get into the book, especially the passages about heaving bosoms and bursting bodices, etc.
Dave