Aeronautical Decision-Making

• Emotional pressure associated with acknowledging • Advise those who are waiting at the destination that that skill and experience levels may be lower than a the arrival may be delayed. Know how to notify them pilot would like them to be. Pride can be a powerful when delays are encountered. external factor! • Manage passengers’ expectations. Make sure passengers know that they might not arrive on a firm Managing External Pressures schedule, and if they must arrive by a certain time, Management of external pressure is the single most important they should make alternative plans. key to risk management because it is the one risk factor • Eliminate pressure to return home, even on a casual category that can cause a pilot to ignore all the other risk day flight, by carrying a small overnight kit containing factors. External pressures put time-related pressure on the prescriptions, contact lens solutions, toiletries, or other pilot and figure into a majority of accidents. necessities on every flight. The use of personal standard operating procedures (SOPs) is The key to managing external pressure is to be ready for one way to manage external pressures. The goal is to supply a and accept delays. Remember that people get delayed when release for the external pressures of a flight. These procedures traveling on airlines, driving a car, or taking a bus. The pilot’s include but are not limited to: goal is to manage risk, not create hazards. [Figure 2-7] • Allow time on a trip for an extra fuel stop or to make an unexpected landing because of weather. Human Factors • Have alternate plans for a late arrival or make backup Why are human conditions, such as fatigue, complacency airline reservations for must-be-there trips. and stress, so important in aviation? These conditions, along • For really important trips, plan to leave early enough with many others, are called human factors. Human factors so that there would still be time to drive to the directly cause or contribute to many aviation accidents and destination, if necessary. Pilot Aircraft A pilot must continually make decisions about competency, A pilot will frequently base decisions on the evaluations of the condition of health, mental and emotional state, level of fatigue, aircraft, such as performance, equipment, or airworthiness. and many other variables. For example, a pilot may be called early in the morning to make a long flight. If a pilot has had only During a preflight, a pilot noticed a small amount of oil dripping a few hours of sleep and is concerned that the congestion from the bottom of the cowling. Although the quantity of oil being experienced could be the onset of a cold, it would be seemed insignificant at the time, the pilot decided to delay the prudent to consider if the flight could be accomplished safely. takeoff and have a mechanic check the source of the oil. The pilot’s good judgment was confirmed when the mechanic A pilot had only 4 hours of sleep the night before being asked found that one of the oil cooler hose fittings was loose. by the boss to fly to a meeting in a city 750 miles away. The reported weather was marginal and not expected to improve. After assessing fitness as a pilot, it was decided that it would External pressures not be wise to make the flight. The boss was initially unhappy, The interaction between the pilot, airplane, and the environment but later convinced by the pilot that the risks involved were is greatly influenced by the purpose of each flight operation. unacceptable. The pilot must evaluate the three previous areas to decide on the desirability of undertaking or continuing the flight as planned. It is worth asking why the flight is being made, how critical is it to Environment maintain the schedule, and is the trip worth the risks? This encompasses many elements not pilot or airplane related. It can include such factors as weather, air traffic control, On a ferry flight to deliver an airplane from the factory, in navigational aids (NAVAIDS), terrain, takeoff and landing marginal weather conditions, the pilot calculated the areas, and surrounding obstacles. Weather is one element that groundspeed and determined that the airplane would arrive at can change drastically over time and distance. the destination with only 10 minutes of fuel remaining. The pilot was determined to keep on schedule by trying to “stretch” the A pilot was landing a small airplane just after a heavy jet had fuel supply instead of landing to refuel. After landing with low departed a parallel runway. The pilot assumed that wake fuel state, the pilot realized that this could have easily resulted turbulence would not be a problem since landings had been in an emergency landing in deteriorating weather conditions. performed under similar circumstances. Due to a combination This was a chance that was not worth taking to keep the of prevailing winds and wake turbulence from the heavy jet planned schedule. drifting across the landing runway, the airplane made a hard landing. The pilot made an error when assessing the flight environment. Figure 2-7. The PAVE checklist. 2-10