The Future of Air Traffic Control

Pilot Fatigue Solution

The only solution I’ve seen for pilot fatigue is rest. However, there is a more effective way to combat pilot fatigue. It has been proven that your body produces toxic chemicals as a result of physical and mental work. Aviation personnel experience some physical, but mostly mental work to the extreme, daily. These toxic chemicals build up in your system, resulting in a decreased ability to function, think, and perform, also known as the effects of fatigue. This chemical waste clogs up your brain and body, and hampers its ability to conduct business as usual, effectively slowing you down. Since your body has to work around this chemical waste, the job is more difficult, and eventually you feel exhausted and drained. Sound familiar?

Now the only way modern society knows how to rid your body of the effects of fatigue is rest, by letting the body’s natural eliminative processes flush the chemicals from your system. Want to know a faster way? Get a massage. Massage has been proven to speed the body’s recovery from the effects of mental and physical fatigue by speeding the eliminative processes.  Massage increases the blood’s activity, and the blood is what carries this toxic waste away. I’m not just talking about a little bit faster, but much, much faster. Based on scientific studies, 5 minutes of massage can revive muscles that have been completely exhausted, and allow them to do more work than before, without becoming exhausted again. Scientific studies have also shown that massage increases cognitive ability through the same process of flushing these toxic chemicals, allowing the brain to effectively remember and react. Two groups were given tests and one of those groups were given massages too, the massage group completed the tests in half the time, with half the errors as the control group. Impressive isn’t it.

 Why do we not have a standard massage program for pilots? Because everyone is looking in the wrong direction. Massage is the good news for aviation that no one is hearing. This information is not new, but has not been applied to the aviation industry as a legitimate finding on fatigue management.

In my article about massage, I explain these processes, and recommend a viable cost-effective solution to the aviation industry. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, that’s okay, just go get a massage twice a week for 20 minutes and you’ll be doing yourself and the whole aviation community a great service. Flying a plane is hard work, controlling air traffic is hard work. In order to give 100% every day, you must let your brain and body recover. Speed this recovery, with massage.

I am currently attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, as a senior, and since I started getting regular massages, my grades have steadily risen to the point of making straight A's. As an added bonus, I'm more relaxed in general, and less tired. I can work through several hours of physics without getting that dull headache that plagued me before. Try it for yourself, and let me know your success story.

By: Amber Markham, Air Traffic Controller