Interview With Astronaut, Chris Hadfield

By Shanon Kern

The following is an interview by In Flight USA reporter, Shanon Kern, with astronaut and author, Chris Hadfield. Chris started in general aviation at age 16 and has flown nearly every aircraft available. He currently has a book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life, on the New York Times Bestseller List.

SK: Over the last couple of years, you’ve kind of given the world a front-row view of space and what it’s like to be an astronaut. What made you decide to put everything out on social media?

CH: I served as an astronaut for 21 years. I’ve always felt that a really vital part of the job was to share the experience, not to keep it to myself. So, through the whole 21 years, I used all the technology I could think of to share it. I used ham radio. I used Castle Blends 70 mm film and Imax movies. I spoke in thousands of places in person, but it wasn’t until my third space flight that social media was invented. That was when we had connectivity. The space station is not the best place all the time, but it has Internet connectivity. So you could take a picture and often within a few minutes share it with the world, so it was really just a continuation of what I’d been doing for 20 years, and I was doing my absolute best to use the technology that existed to share a really rare human experience. It’s just been amazing to see the result of that work.

SK: I am sure it has been. I have two young boys, and we wake up early in the morning just to sit and watch YouTube videos. Your videos are the ones that we watch.

CH: Oh. That’s nice to hear. I had millions of people following along with what I did in space, and now of course, with all the different perspectives and experiences that come with it, which are delightful, it’s nice to have done something that I thought was really important, something that was really challenging, something that was new for humanity. It was even better to have so many other people agree–so many other people you know vote with their mouse to try, share, and be part of it.

SK: Right. And you talk about at age nine being inspired by watching Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. Did you want to give back in a way that would inspire the next generation?

CH: I’ve always felt that each one of us has an obligation to give back. You have two boys, so you recognize that. None of us got here by ourselves, even if you’re a self-made man, someone gave birth to you, someone nursed you, and someone built the roads, communication, structure, and everything else that we use in order to be personally successful. As a citizen, I think it’s absolutely fundamental to give back. Certain people inspired me. As you mentioned, Neil and Buzz were important, but there were a lot of others too. I’ve always felt that if I ever got to that sort of position where I was trusted to do something on behalf of so many other people, that a major part of the job after I’ve made sure that I’ve done the job right, was to share it with others.

You do your job properly–be successful at it, pay attention to it, make it safe and productive, but don’t keep it to yourself. My intention was not to be famous or anything like that; my intention was to do my job really well, share it with people, and let them decide. I don’t think Neil’s intent was ever, “I want to walk on the moon because that will make me famous.” He did it because it was barely possible, and I always sort of felt the same way. The reaction, especially now with the communication capabilities and social media, had been really good. I think it gives a lot of people something else to focus on instead of the transient negativity that often seems to pervade us. It lets people see the big picture and some of the pretty amazing things that are happening as well.

SK: No, I definitely have had that feeling about you. It’s been amazing watching what you did by talking to different schools and having them ask questions. I don’t know. It was great to watch. I really enjoyed it. You definitely inspired my boys.

CH: I’m glad to hear it. It is one of the best parts of being an astronaut. An astronaut came to me years ago. His name was Jeremy Hanesn. He came to me as a high school student and said, “You know, I am really inspired by what you’ve done. I’ve learned to fly partially because of the example you set, and now I am trying to decide what to do next,” and he kind of listened to what I had to say. He made choices in his life–– chose to go on to get a master’s degree in physics and became a pilot then a fighter pilot. He did all of that partially because of personal ambition and partially because of the example I set. Now he was chosen as an astronaut and will fly in space. It’s really gratifying to have that type of feedback from young boys or girls that are your kids’ age and see them become people who have now finished all their education and are working out in the real world. So yeah, I think it’s an important part of the job, but it’s also an extremely gratifying part of the job.

SK: Yeah. I think that’s great. Also, in your book, I found it in the science technology section, but after reading it, I realized that it was much more than that. It was almost hard to categorize. It was almost like a self-help book in a lot of ways, in a positive way.

CH: I find that funny. When we were first talking to the publishers about it, one of the questions was, “Where is this going to go in a bookstore?” and we could not come up with a consensus, so it is sort of funny to me to walk into a bookstore and see where they put it. 

I’ve seen it in the biography section, but it’s not a biography. I’ve seen it in the astronomy section. I’ve seen it in science and technology. I’ve seen it in self-help. To me, the title was deliberately chosen. I thought of the title one day while I was out walking the dogs with my wife. It is truly an Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. To me, that’s the part that matters.

Explaining the entertaining part of space flight is okay, but it is transient. What really matters is how it helps people–what can you learn from this that is useful or beneficial–and that is really what I tried to make the book do–talk to readers about the exciting and interesting ideas and draw from it as many useful and thought-provoking ideas as possible. The book is in 18 languages, and it’s been a New York Times Bestseller and bestseller all around the world. It’s being made into a television show in Hollywood and all of that. I am really pleased, and it’s probably okay that it’s not easy to pigeonhole into just one type of book. I am satisfied that people in so many places out in the world, from China to Portugal to Russia to Brazil, are all finding that their thoughts are worth sharing. 

SK: No, I think that’s great. And that is what I have told people too–even if you aren’t interested in astronauts or aviation, I promise you will get something out of this book.

CH: Yeah, I am glad you have it. It’s the basis for talks that I give, and I give talks all around the world. I spoke to the crowned prince, who is part of United Arab Emirates, and spoke across Australia, the UK, and you know, a bunch of places in Europe, across the U.S., and Canada. It’s all based on the experiences I’ve had, the ideas that came from it, and how those ideas are useful or beneficial on a personal daily basis.

SK: That’s awesome. Since this is for an aviation-related magazine, I wanted to ask you about your time as a test pilot. I read something about your work with a very high angle of attack. I was kind of curious to find out exactly what that was. Obviously, I know about angle of attack as a pilot too, but this seemed to be something completely different. Can you elaborate?

CH: Sure, I’ve flown a lot of different airplanes, about 100 different types. I think some of them are very simple airplanes, one-person gliders, two-person gliders, Cessna, and Piper airplanes. I’ve also flown some very complex airplanes and big ones, 747s, C5s, and C141s. Then I’ve flown everything in between, including a bunch of different helicopters. I’ve also flown a lot of high-performance airplanes. And high performance, you know those words are chosen on purpose.

They have great acceleration and maneuverability, and they can fly in parts of the envelope that other airplanes cannot. One of the parts of the envelope when you plot speed versus altitude versus angle of attack versus all those things, there are some airplanes that can fly forward with their noses way up in the air where your angle between where you’re pointing and where you’re going is significantly different. Of course that’s your angle of attack, the difference between the direction of movement and the direction that you are pointing.

F18 was the first huge leading-edge extension on the wings that would allow you to fly the airplane with a really high angle of attack, up to 40- or 50-degree angles of attack. In that fighter, that’s really important because it allows you to point your nose in a dogfight, so you can bring guns there or tracking equipment, or lock on with the radar infrared sensors way better than someone else who is trying to maneuver their plane.

As a test pilot of course, I’m trying to make airplanes fly safely and predictably, and even though an F18 would fly at a high angle of attack, it was really rough flying there. It was not predictable and very controllable. No one had really done a lot of research into how to evaluate or improve how an airplane handles to i qualities at high angle of attack. It’s called a lot of different things: agility, maneuverability, and quickness, but what you’re really looking for is the handling quality at high angle of attack, and it’s easy just to say it’s bad.

It’s doable, but it’s bad. How do you quantify that to an engineer, article engineer, or an airplane designer? If they make an incremental change, then they know they’ve made it better or worse. So, one of the many things that I did as a test pilot was to quantify handling qualities at high angle of attack. It’s what I did my master’s thesis on, and I did a lot of work both with the navy and with Macdonald Douglas trying to more clearly identify and quantify that. So did it really help the airplanes fly?

We changed… I did a whole lot of control program with F18s as well, and we changed the flight control laws. Now we got them to change the fundamental laws that their computers use in order to move the flight controls to make it a much safer and predictable airplane. It would cost a lot less airplanes in the fleet as a result. So yeah, test piloting for me was the best job in the world until I got my next one.

SK: Amazing! Absolutely amazing! How often are you able to fly now?

CH: Well, I have been really busy since I retired as an astronaut. I have been Flying since I was a teenager. I got my license when I was about 16, but I am in the hunt for an airplane right now. I’d like to be part owner.

There’s a terrific aviation museum in Canada called Vintage Wings. Vintage Wings of Canada is based in Ottawa. Their idea is to completely refurbish otherwise retired airplanes, older airplanes, most of them around Second World War vintage, but then fly them. They have all of them flying, not just standing in a museum looking at the dusty airplane but partially maintaining the flying and preserving so much of the heritage. One might ask, how did you maintain it? What did you learn from it? How can you make it a living thing for people that have never seen the airplane originally and so on and so forth?

I fly Vintage Wings with them. They have an F86 that I’ve flown for years, so I need to fly enough now to keep my currency up to fly something as demanding as a Saber. I’m just looking right now. I’ve flown twins for many years, and that’s a nice busy cockpit. It sort of gets you up to speed, so right now, I’ve changed jobs.

I had to put secondary things in the background for a while, but I’m actively talking to people. Earlier this morning, I talked about what I’m going to fly next. I’m looking for a nice busy cockpit that will keep my speeds up, my habit patterns up, and my cross check and prioritization correct so that when I get into the Saber, I will be a good pilot

SK: That’s really awesome. I am glad… now are your kids involved in aviation at all?

CH: My kids, no. My family is. My dad was a pilot his whole life and an airline pilot. He flew B17s for aerial survey in the Arctic and in Venezuela. He still flies, and both my brothers are airline pilots. They both fly for AirCanada. One of their sons does too, so a nephew is also involved in aviation.

There are lots of people from my family involved, but none of my kids fly. Both my boys are color blind, so they couldn’t fly. My daughter gets motion sickness, so it wasn’t a career for her either.

I still fly, and I think it really shapes how I do everything. It’s a really demanding task. It’s something that regularly kills people, but it’s one that requires skill in order to be successful. I prepare for flight in a very serious way. I focus on it while it’s happening, and I learn from it. Also, the perspective that it gives me and the way that I get to see the world as a result makes kind of a little microcosm of what it was like to be an astronaut and how I treat everything in life. I am really glad to be able to get back into flying, and I intend to fly regularly for the rest of my life.

SK: Mr. Hadfield, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.

CH: One other thing on aviation… I am a professor of aviation at the University of Waterloo. They have an aviation program there, so it’s really nice to be able to work with the students there to help teach not just the mechanics of moving an airplane but airmanship and the processes of preparation, prioritization, and professionalism. Those are the real keys to being successful. So, another way I am staying in aviation is by being a professor on the aviation faculty at University of Waterloo.

SK: Thank you!

CH: Well thanks, Shanon. I hope you have enough information in there for your article, and you tell your boys hello for me.