I think the aircraft being familiar makes it worse: if you're used to going through a certain motion to do a thing, it may be one of things your brain can do without really thinking about it much, which is where the danger comes in.
I've engaged my wipers when meaning to shift gears before, in my truck which has a steering column shifter. After driving the truck for years. I have ADHD and I very often let my brain go on autopilot for things I do every day, and sometimes it just does the wrong thing. It doesn't matter how complicated or "intentional" the task has to be: my brain will memorize it to the point that it can execute it on its own without me consciously thinking about it.
I think it's totally plausible it was a muscle memory thing, if the at-fault pilot's brain works anything like mine.
(Side note: I actually took some flying lessons, including going through all of ground school, and realized that my brain is just not cut out for flying. I am the type of person to "cowboy" things if I feel like they're not worth doing, and flying is an activity where the tiniest missed checklist item can result in death, so I realized I have a statistically high likelihood of crashing due to some boneheaded mistake, and stopped taking lessons.)
There is no temporal nor spatial adjacency to the switches. The switches are equivalent to the ignition on your car, you operate it in the beginning and end of your trip, and there is nothing during the trip that will involve manipulating this switch.
I firmly believe this is not the case. Putting more obstacles between me and the thing I’m trying to do, just trains my brain at rote performance of the task. It’s still “autopilot” as far as my brain is concerned.
This could be anything: starting a car, taking off a medicine cap, typing my password, clicking around cookie warnings. If I have to do it repeatedly, my brain will be able to perform it subconsciously, and I will do it without realizing it.
For fuel cutoff switches, it doesn’t matter that there two of them in a row. If you cut off both of them every single time, and you fly every day, your brain is gonna automate that task.
I think the aircraft being familiar makes it worse: if you're used to going through a certain motion to do a thing, it may be one of things your brain can do without really thinking about it much, which is where the danger comes in.
I've engaged my wipers when meaning to shift gears before, in my truck which has a steering column shifter. After driving the truck for years. I have ADHD and I very often let my brain go on autopilot for things I do every day, and sometimes it just does the wrong thing. It doesn't matter how complicated or "intentional" the task has to be: my brain will memorize it to the point that it can execute it on its own without me consciously thinking about it.
I think it's totally plausible it was a muscle memory thing, if the at-fault pilot's brain works anything like mine.
(Side note: I actually took some flying lessons, including going through all of ground school, and realized that my brain is just not cut out for flying. I am the type of person to "cowboy" things if I feel like they're not worth doing, and flying is an activity where the tiniest missed checklist item can result in death, so I realized I have a statistically high likelihood of crashing due to some boneheaded mistake, and stopped taking lessons.)
There is no temporal nor spatial adjacency to the switches. The switches are equivalent to the ignition on your car, you operate it in the beginning and end of your trip, and there is nothing during the trip that will involve manipulating this switch.
If your wipers had the equivalent of a child safety cap it would be hard to do it accidentally, especially twice in a row.
I firmly believe this is not the case. Putting more obstacles between me and the thing I’m trying to do, just trains my brain at rote performance of the task. It’s still “autopilot” as far as my brain is concerned.
This could be anything: starting a car, taking off a medicine cap, typing my password, clicking around cookie warnings. If I have to do it repeatedly, my brain will be able to perform it subconsciously, and I will do it without realizing it.
For fuel cutoff switches, it doesn’t matter that there two of them in a row. If you cut off both of them every single time, and you fly every day, your brain is gonna automate that task.