I do a considerable amount of public speaking, typically on matters pertaining to psychology, and have always said to myself (because no one else was interested) that I don’t like to prepare too much.   Too much preparation leads to an awkward presentation as I find myself trying to remember the information I studied instead of connecting in the moment with the audience.

But at the same time I know that lack of preparation can be deadly.  I read a report the other day of how two pilots took off early in the morning from their home airport, and without having an engine failure or any other obvious problem, the airplane they were flying veered gently to the right and slowly descended into the ground causing a fire and the death of both occupants.   Any guesses?  The NTSB found that the pilots neglected to remove the rudder gust lock prior to takeoff.   The gust lock is something that prevents the rudder from flopping around in the wind on the ground; it is also something that one routinely removes during the preflight inspection.

Over a decade ago, in my primary training, my instructor told me that 85% of accidents could be traced to an inadequate preflight inspection. I didn’t take him too seriously.  It seems as though everything causes 85% of accidents, so I found that number particularly hard to believe.

A typical preflight inspection involves checking the airplane to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be and that there are no hinges missing, no water in the fuel, no leaks, the tires are inflated, nothing is obstructing the control surfaces (such as a gust lock), all the snakes are out of the cockpit—you get the picture.  While technically not part of an inspection, checking the weather is another part of preflight preparation, and I suppose when added with pilots who depart without adequate fuel, the 85% number my instructor recited may be entirely plausible.

When departing anywhere, doing some sort of preflight is probably a good idea.  If my brother remembered to do a preflight when he left to go home the other day he wouldn’t have left his jacket in my car, and if each day I remembered to do a preflight before I left home in the morning I probably would not have to return to the house for my keys or cell phone so often.

There’s an old Hasidic story about how the philtrum (that little crease beneath our noses) comes about.   When we are conceived, the story goes, God gives us all the knowledge in the universe.   When we are born, God touches us just beneath the nose and we forget everything.   We then spend the rest of our lives trying to remember what we already know.

I am not so sure about the part in which God gives us all the knowledge in the universe, but I can sure attest to the difficulty I have remembering any of the knowledge I read in textbooks.  The fact is, I have done an awful lot of homework in my time, read a lot of books, known and learned from my clients and colleagues, and I continue to read and learn new stuff every day.

Perhaps that is where I delude myself into thinking that too much preparation gets in the way of a successful presentation.   In reality, I undoubtedly prepare a whole lot more than I admit, and then “forget” what I know in order to appear to be remembering things spontaneously.    All that preparation is just what you do in order to do a good preflight, and a good preflight just may prevent you from forgetting to remove your gust lock.

—Written August, 2015