[aristoxenus]

At least two things at play there:

1) Intuition. His non-conscious brain has developed an understanding of the machine.

2) Focus. When you're a warrior in his situation, you can't be second-guessing your horse. That calculation was made on the ground, and now he's committed -- to be effective, he needs to be fully confident that he's well-taken care of. The human brain seems to be wired for a euphoric reaction to complete and utter trust (parental/social/religious bonding?), and that he was able to let that system kick in at such a moment speaks a lot about his abilities as a pilot and about the engineering feat embodied in that jet.

[aristoxenus]

Ok, and one more thing -- poetic license. The guy is a great storyteller.