Autopilot: Is it the same for everybody?

[Guinnessman]

I may be splitting hairs, but I hear this too often and it bothers my OCD. I'm not disagreeing with what I think you believe, just the words that I see. I don't believe for a minute that just training is sufficient to have it "kick in".

I believe that people will fail to their level of mastery, not their level of training. Simply being trained on a skillset isn't enough if the person hasn't developed a high level of competence and confidence, his subconscious doesn't believe he can perform that skillset under the perceived level of stress/danger and he will be far less likely to execute. (Hat tip to John Hearne)

I agree with everything you just said. I could have mentioned more about past experience coming into play. The wife was talking my ear off when I typed my above post so I apologize.

[Dagga Boy]

A couple of thoughts. You need to get the auto-pilot turned on. I have seen first hand some very well trained and motivated people simply freeze or crap the bed because they couldn't find the switch when they needed it. I have seen that experience often fixes this if they live through the first failure of not knowing how the auto pilot works. I remember working with some very cocky young EP guys on a detail who were insulted that I was fairly un-impressed with all their training without a single bit of actual experience. When questioned why I never wanted to work with them my statement of "I don't want to be there for your first gunfight". After interrupting a hit on one of their convoy's (by my very well seasoned partner and I setting up in a hidden position near the spot where these idiots drove through every single day like clockwork....think like the enemy), they not only never had the awareness of the fact that they were going to be hit, but their response of "well if we did, we would have been able to handle it with all our training and "firepower"). These guys lacked the awareness to find a switch or the mechanism to activate it. I have had other well trained guys who had a great auto-pilot wired it, but failed to use it because they activated the wrong auto-pilot. One of my shooters jacked up a shooting badly (along with a bunch of other guys who went total clownshoes.....with the Chief of police who never should have been out of the office) that gave me a ton of information of training scars rearing their ugly head information. The guy just looked at me and said "I know, I know....no sights, no trigger, and shot from the hip........I went back to my academy stuff and I know better"(He was the top gun winner in his academy class and took the shooting very seriously there). About a month later he did a spectacular job on a shooting with another one of my guys. Absolute textbook use of force and textbook delivery of shots with near perfect placement. Literally looked like it was taken form the response for that distance out of the SWAT qualification. This time, big smile and said "Okay, I fixed it". He had to disable one switch and activate another. This guy was a flat stud and very very tough cop who trained very hard and was totally dedicated. He gravitated to very dangerous situations and was "no stranger to danger", yet even he had an issue with which switch to hit. It is why I laugh every time I read on the net how someone who has never really seen chaotic violence wants to believe that they will be able to separate out their different types of training and habits if they ever get into a deadly force level encounter for the first time.

I use a shooting I was present at and heavily involved in to illustrate the benefits of a simple hardwired auto-pilot response. My partner during one of the most successful periods of aggressive pro-active policing was one of those guys who carried a gun because he had to and wasn't a guy or training guy by any stretch (his wife's purse was most likely where his off duty gun was......that kind of guy when it came to guns). He was always a disaster at the range and I had a ton of investment in him in time and effort. The key was he really didn't know anything else. We countered an ambush set for us and he ended up in a close range gunfight where he avoided being significantly hit by shooting on the move throughout the fight, used his sights, and delivered a textbook failure drill to end the fight. Afterwards, he simply said "I don't know, I just did what you told me on SWAT". This guy, while not a gun guy, was the best guy I have ever been around when it came to picking up the slightest indicators of a threat. Now that "Left of Bang" is getting a lot of attention, this guy was the poster child at predicting and noting threats and a big reason why we were one of the most effective crime suppression units ever fielded by our agency. Here was a guy who understood what "danger looks like", a savant at reading threats, and had a very simple switch to hit to a very easy and uncluttered immediate response to anyone giving him a lethal force indicator. That switch was perfected in an incident prior when he had a case that he should have shot a guy and didn't. It was due to some additional "clutter" in the brain in which most officers were trained to avoid use of lethal force at all costs, and literally almost more afraid of the "process" than the bad guys with guns. This "mindset" issue was also worked out between an actual incident and the training he got when he came to me that was "radically" different from what was put in his head from typical academy and agency training and common thinking. So, great threat awareness, positive mindset already worked out due to actual experience, and a single switch and simple response with zero clutter. I look at this case in the "police format" exactly like Tom Givens looks at his Thai lady. The case studies are earily similar in the lessons and how they apply to different worlds.

[1slow]

" Clutter Kills" T shirt ?

[GJM]

Can't wait to see GJM weigh in on this one...

Okie John

I would carefully read what John Hearne wrote, then read it a second time. I know that he has studied this carefully, and then discussed this with the preeminent US and Canadian helicopter schools specializing in emergency training. I believe performing autorotations in the event of an engine failure, and other helicopter emergencies, closely correlates to other incidents that threaten to end your life prematurely.

[Dagga Boy]

I would carefully read what John Hearne wrote, then read it a second time. I know that he has studied this carefully, and then discussed this with the preeminent US and Canadian helicopter schools specializing in emergency training. I believe performing autorotations in the event of an engine failure, and other helicopter emergencies, closely correlates to other incidents that threaten to end your life prematurely.

Most know that GJM and I can usual find some agreement on issues when we use aviation analogies. The training, and event of an Autorotation is a VERY similar event to being in a shooting in a lot of ways. Personally, having done actual training autorotations......I would rather be in a shooting than an unplanned autorotation at 70' like the guy who trained me to fly had to do......it was ugly.

[JustOneGun]

Interesting enough everyone in this thread has been correct. That's what makes in so hard to implement. It depends.

Gamers need a good habit just like any sport. They are thinking linearly and can change their response on the fly due depending on their experience at the game.

During an encounter I can do the same thing right up to when my mind decides that I'm going to die. Call it fight or flight or whatever. Then I can no longer think in the same way. I will take that mental picture or schema that contains some set of actions that I believe will save me and do it without conscious thought. This belief can be agreeing with the action and my confidence in performing it. In this way it is almost impossible for me to stop that action from finishing once I start, although some people can and from what I've see it's independent of training or experience. Genetic maybe?

I believe we don't spend enough time working out those mental triggers or we try to cover every base and put too many of these mental pictures in our heads. I believe that just fouls up our brain process. Perhaps because there isn't enough practice to solidify each one? I'm not sure. What that balance is depends on what each of us believe. In that way it depends also.