92. The voice from the flight deck - Rosy Helbig
The pandemic has thrown the aviation world into chaos and impacted travel plans more than anyone could've predicted. In this all stars episode we return to pre-pandemic times for a conversation with pilot Rosy Helbig who explains the critical role of voice in flying and the reactions she still gets when people hear a FEMALE voice from the cockpit.
Transcript
Today I take you back to the the beautiful Rosy Helbig, who’s an airline pilot. And wow so much has changed for aviation since we spoke way back in episode 10 the good news is Rosy is still flying, she’s also had a gorgeous baby and has another on the way – congratulations.
And what I love about this conversation is it highlights how VOICE is so important for a range of roles, but often isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.
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I don’t believe we have any pilots in the group, but as Rosy mentions in our chat voice training would very useful for pilots, so if you are a pilot you would be most welcome!
From the passenger point of view, we normally hear from the captain of the plane when they’re doing the PA announcements and that’s where we’ll fly back to our conversation.
Rosy : We have a little bit of flexibility and we do like to make our PA's somewhat personable. We do have to mention the seatbelt policy and you'll hear this on every flight that you're on around Australia and probably the whole world. That once the seatbelt sign has been switched off that you're in your seats, so please keep your seatbelts comfortably fastened just in case of any unexpected turbulence, aside from that, it's a bit of a general guide. So I like to speak about where we're going. So the time we get to our destination, if we're on time, what the weather is at our destination and also what type of flight we can expect. So if there's any turbulence along the way or anything like that.
Sally: And do you like to have a bit of fun with it? Like I know sometimes, especially when flights are delayed, it's kind of nice when the pilot acknowledges that kind of thing. Do you do that?
Rosy : We try not to, I think the term is sky larking. We as pilots do have to stay professional and somewhat serious. It's not easy making a delay PA. But that's something that with experience becomes a little bit more easy.
Sally: Yeah. And do you enjoy doing it?
Rosy : You know, I do enjoy making PA's and I put that down to me enjoying my job and enjoying flying and I just want to share that with all of our passengers sometimes. I think I'm really just a bit of a tourist and I love looking at the window and looking at our beautiful country and how it changes over the seasons.
Sally: Yeah. Cause there's times when pilots will say, okay, if you're on the left and you look at the left side, we've got a beautiful view coming into wherever city it is. Do you do that kind of thing?
Rosy : Yes, I do. If I'm familiar with the destination and we know exactly how we'll be approaching that airport and what we'll see out of any particular side, if there's something of significance, I do like to mention what our passengers can expect to see.
Sally: And being a female pilot, unfortunately there's still not that many around. Do you get a reaction when people hear that 'surprise, surprise. You're a woman!'
Rosy : I do. In Australia, women make up approximately 5% of all pilot license holders. Just 5%, that's not very many. So whilst my colleagues are used to working with females, the general public haven't all had the opportunity to have one as their pilot yet. So I often make a point in my PAs of mentioning that I'm the pilot flying them on that particular sector. And often at the end of the flight, a passenger might make a comment to the cabin crew or as they're disembarking if the flight deck door is open. Sometimes they'll send in a few words of support as they're leaving the aircraft, which is quite funny. But generally the reaction is it is quite positive.
Sally: That's good to hear. Do you still get any negative sentiment from people?
Rosy : I can probably count on one or two hands over my career the amount of negative comments that I've had. But generally people are overwhelmingly supportive. I'm surprised I'm still today a lot of people are surprised to see a female in the flight deck and generally as they're disembarking they will ask, "Oh, was that you?" And I'll respond. "Yes." Then they say, "Oh, okay, good on you." So I'm glad that I can perhaps change people's perceptions of what an airline pilot might look like.
Sally: Yeah. Cause it's definitely that surprise. I remember sitting next to somebody and having a female voice come over and he just said to me, "Oh, it's a woman." I replied it, well it could be a man with a very high pitched voice. We don't know. But it was just interesting that that was the visceral reaction I guess to it.
Rosy : Yes. And that's good. It means that he was listening to the PA.
Sally: Yeah. Which is always a good sign. Yeah. Do you sometimes feel like you're just talking to a brick wall, especially when you can't, you know, see passenger's responses?
Rosy : You know, sometimes I believe that can help in the delivery of a PA - that you can't see your passengers, particularly if you're a little bit shy with public speaking. On the other hand though, you do hear that people may not always pay attention as we're just saying to the PAs. But sometimes being a female I think is a bit of an advantage and people do- so I've heard from our cabin crew - pay more attention when they hear a female voice.
Sally: Well that's good, isn't it? It is. And have you ever had to use your voice in an emergency?
Rosy : I have had on a few occasions a medical emergency where we have to request priority to land and we do have a set guide of things to say. So it is very important at that time to be very clear, be very concise, and to not really drift off into too much detail.
Sally: Yeah. And how do you do that? How do you find the balance between telling people what's going on but not giving away too much information and then also keeping your voice sounding calm?
Rosy : It is a bit of a delicate balance. There is a standard phrasiology in aviation. However, at times you do need to break away from that if it's just easier to get the message across to speak in plain language as well. The best thing I think to remember, particularly in that circumstance where you have medical emergency is that it is important to convey that information clearly so that you can have the best possible outcome for that passenger.
Sally: Yeah. And with all this pressure on your voice, I'm interested to know, have you ever had any voice training?
Rosy : No, I haven't. I'm not sure if that's something that other airlines provide. But that's certainly something to consider in the future actually. Cause I can definitely see the advantage from a passenger point of view of having someone that has had some voice training.
Sally: Yeah. Well it's just interesting from my perspective because the main thing I deal with is tension. You know, people getting nervous. And then when everything gets tense, that's when the voice will go on you. And especially when there's high stakes, I can imagine it's challenging for you to just breathe and sound calm even though the situation might necessarily not be that calm.
Rosy : Right. That's interesting. I think pilots are very well trained, you know, they're flying and radio procedures. But in terms of communicating with the passengers, that's probably something that can get a little bit lost amongst at all.
Sally: And so I wanted to ask you, has there ever been a situation where something's gone wrong because of a miscommunication or someone making a mistake with the words?
Rosy : Personally, I can't think of anything specific, but there is a very big and quite tragic event that happened some years ago in Tenerife in the Canary islands that I can think of where it was quite a foggy day. There was an aircraft crossing a runway and another aircraft that was waiting to take off. They were given some instructions and the word takeoff was used, but they weren't actually cleared for takeoff. And this aircraft proceeded to take off despite not having the clearance. And unfortunately, just as they got airborne, they collided with that other aircraft on the ground. It was a great example at the time of how important it is to use standard phrasiology and communicate clearly during times of high pressure and fatigue.
Wow that story Rosy shared has really stuck with me, because it really shows how critical communication is in industries such as aviation.
And even though it’s a sombre way to end this episode, it is useful to think seriously about the way we communicate and what could be at stake if we don’t do it well.
And while it may not, hopefully, be a matter of life and death it may be our relationships at stake, opportunities in the workplace, your ability to love yourself. If you feel like the way you speak is holding you back in any way, this is something we can definitely rectify, come and join the Masterclass Vault and or my new course Speak from your Soul – links to both are in the shownotes.