Traits in Stunt Pilots

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Wagstaff isn’t alone in remembering her first airshow. Most professional pilots and even most spectators usually do. It’s an experience unlike any other, usually requiring a walk from a parking lot past several hangers filled with technicians and pilots gearing up for the day’s events. A pilot’s personality is to have a honed-in focus on their craft, much like Alex Honnold preparing for a climb. You can’t miss it on your way to the bleachers or where your family will sprawl out their lawn chairs and blankets.

If you’re going to be a successful stunt pilot, you’d be well advised to take note of how each pilot is a team member, like when The Blue Angels prepare on the ground for their routine before taking to the sky. Like Kenny Chiang, each pilot has got to be totally rehearsed in their own role to create an applause-worthy team spectacle in the sky. 

To achieve this level, you not only have to be highly intelligent and attentive to detail but physically fit as well.



Do You Have What It Takes?

Aviation psychology consultant Dr. Robert G. Rose posits that “Pilots generally have good social skills and good reasoning. Like many professional people, pilots have to deal with complex information, make decisions and deal with people. Thus, they tend to be bright and capable of good social interaction when called for. In these traits, you, as a pilot, are similar to managers (and consultants)...”

The best pilots are often engineer-minded in that they like to know how things work from its base upward. They know how to take things apart and reconstruct them. This is an intelligent but not intellectual approach to the world. According to The Air Line Pilots Association, pilots “are concrete, practical, linear thinkers rather than abstract, philosophical, or theoretical. On a scale that ranges from analytically oriented to emotionally oriented, pilots tend to be toward the analytical end. They are extremely reality- and goal-oriented. They like lists showing concrete problems, not talking about them.”

This, of course, doesn’t mean a deep thinker cannot be a pilot. But when you’re in the air, it’s purely the strict level of topline physics one must master to be successful. This means avoiding gray areas of thought. Rather, the laws of in-the-moment physics are what a pilot is tasked with mastering. This is where the hardcore preparation comes into play: a pilot must absolutely know the boundaries around what they are attempting to accomplish before lifting off and while executing airborne until the moment they set down on the tarmac.

Perfectionism through personal growth

Stunt piloting can be a zero-sum game, which is why the world’s very best aerobatic artists are also some of the world’s most perfection-minded individuals. This often displays itself throughout a pilot’s life, with physical fitness off the airfield that goes hand-in-hand with their performance in the sky. There is no ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ in flight. There is only preparation, execution, and accomplishment. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, this means that “the pilot must be aware of situations where (loss of control) can occur, recognize when an airplane is approaching a stall, has stalled, or is in an upset condition, and understand and execute the correct procedures to recover the aircraft.”

From commercial airliners to stunt pilots, this requires an elite mastery of emotions. Whether flying solo or with a team, this can come into play just like in any other professional setting. Humans frustrate one-another naturally sometimes. Or, just as often, frustrations with one’s own performance can cloud future judgment or confidence. The best pilots know how to work through these internal fears and frustrations before the next time they take to the skies.

It’s tantamount for pilot teams to master communication skills and set toxic emotions aside before taking to the sky. And, just like in any other setting, resolving these differences can build an even stronger bond between colleagues, competitors, or teammates in the long term. A former pilot of the UK’s top air team, The Red Arrows, says that character is actually the top qualification to make the team. In fact, he says a key tenet to success in the sky is knowing how to “grow through failure.”

All in all, pilots must be trained and train themselves to stay absolutely cool-headed in unforeseen and challenging situations. This requires introspective and outer perfectionism when it comes to emotions when maintaining aircraft control.

Are You Ready?

The Air Line Pilots Association has boiled down the personality traits of a pilot to 24 key characteristics:

1. Physically and mentally healthy
2. Reality-Based
3. Self Sufficient
4. Difficulty trusting anyone to do a job as well as themselves
5. Suspicious
6. Intelligent but not intellectual
7. They like “toys”
8. Good at taking things apart and putting them back together
9. Concrete, practical, linear thinkers rather than abstract, philosophical, or theoretical
10. More analytical than emotional
11. Reality-oriented
12. Goal-oriented
13. Short-term goal orientation and not long-term goal driven
14. Bimodal
15. Tend to modify environment instead of their behavior
16. Hunger for excitement
17. Competitive
18. Do not handle failure well
19. Low tolerance for personal imperfection
20. Long memories of perceived injustices
21. Draw Conclusions about people at a glance rather than relying on long and emotion-laden conversation
22. Avoid introspection
23. Have difficulty revealing, expressing, or even recognizing feelings
24. When experiencing an unwanted feeling, a tendency to mask them with humor or anger

Do you think you have these traits or can train to master them? Are you thinking of becoming a stunt pilot? If so, it’s time to sign up for your first pilot training session today!



Sources

“Practical Use of the Pilot’s Personality Profile,” Robert G. Rose, Ph.D., AvWeb February 18, 2001.

“The Pilot Personality,” Air Line Pilot Magazine, Air Line Pilots Association, 2007.



“Lessons in Teamwork from Elite Stunt Pilots,” Andy Lopata, 2022.

“Airplane Flying Handbook,” Federal Aviation Administration, Chapter 4.

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