My father worked in a manufacturing facility during my childhood. A workplace specializing in chemically treated textiles is fraught with safety issues, prompting many safety initiatives. My dad brought home a pencil from one safety meeting, a white pencil bearing an important reminder in red block letters:

“I didn’t think it could happen to me!”

Have you been there? After so many hours flying, so many certificates and ratings, “I didn’t think it could happen to me!” I didn’t think that runway incursion, that prop strike, that flight into accidental IMC, insert problem here — it didn’t seem possible, did it?

Yet it happened.

Some occurrences are truly accidental despite our best efforts to mitigate them. I can list several examples. You can too. But effective risk management can prevent most issues we encounter.

Who Needs Risk Management Anyway?

Risk management seems like a good topic to preach to new pilots. Indeed, you folks new to piloting need to learn about and practice effective risk management if you want to be a safe pilot (which should be all pilots). You need to learn good aeronautical decision-making. You must know how to avoid accidental flight into the clouds. You should be proficient at obtaining weather briefings. You should master using your Electronic Flight Bag (EFB).

Experienced, advanced pilots, I’m talking to you too. It’s easy to lull yourself into a false sense of security when you’ve flown 2,500 hours with no incident or accident. It doesn’t make you immune to risk; it just means you’ve been lucky.

We experience risks in all aspects of our lives, for life is inherently dangerous. That’s why we need frequent reminders of what risks exist and how to mitigate them.

“So What” About Hazards?

The first step in risk management is identifying the hazard. Otherwise, how would you know what to do? Identifying hazards is methodical and time-consuming but worth the effort. I recommend asking “so what?” to every aspect of your flight, starting with the pre-flight plan. You’re flying at the coast with a cold front coming through. So what? You know when rising warm air meets cold air, it creates a thunderstorm. Probably not a good idea to fly into that, right?

You glance at the aileron and see a dark line. So what? Well, if it’s just a smudge, then your only hazard is flying a dirty plane. If it’s a crack, then you need to rethink the flight. Even if the pilot before you was not as proactive and flew with a cracked aileron, would you want to risk failure of a critical flight control? A critical eye toward everything you do could be the difference between a smooth flight and an emergency. We all know how to answer the “so what?” to that statement.

What’s Bugging You?

None of us are immune to stress, but some of us think we are immune to the effects of stress. Sorry to break it to you, but you are not.

That bad day at work will carry over when another pilot makes a snappy comment toward you on the UNICOM. When your passengers are eager to start their vacation, but you insist the weather is unfavorable — you will second-guess yourself when rechecking the TAF. Finding out you need to move your mother into hospice care the morning of your checkride will weigh on you during your test. Not hydrating well before a long cross-country on a sweltering late July day will affect your physical performance in flight.

If you're experiencing any outside pressure that can cause you to engage in risky or unsafe behavior, you must stop and consider how that pressure will affect you. Not how you hope it affects you, but how you will react. No one knows you better than you.

Why Are You Doing This?

I came across a great TED Talk by author and speaker Simon Sinek discussing why we do what we do. The video focuses on marketing messages, which is in my wheelhouse, but it ties well into aviation risk management.

Sinek explains that our brain is one part neocortex (rational and analytical thought) and two parts limbic (feelings). The neocortex guides those “so what?” decisions I mentioned earlier. The limbic parts give us that gut feeling, that tiny language voice inside our heads that we try to ignore and often wish we did not ignore.

In practical application, you have been flying legacy instruments since you started training 30 years ago. Because a good pilot is always learning, you decide to give the glass panel a try. Your rational brain says, “This should not be hard. You are an early adopter of tech. You have this.” Your limbic brain counters, “Do you truly want to fuddle around with this device 4,000 feet in the air?”

My advice? Listen to your limbic brain. If something does not feel right, then do not do it. Call your flight school and have them help you learn the nuances of glass-panel flying. The worst that happens with that decision is you shell out a few dollars to learn something new. The worst that happens when you make an unwise decision … well, we do not like to mention these things.

By the way, Sinek makes an aviation reference in his talk. Watch his presentation to learn why we consider Orville and Wilbur aviation pioneers and not Samuel Pierpont Langley.

Do You Rage Against the Machine?

Technology abounds in aviation. I am not sure about you, but I enjoy seeing innovation in our field. But this technology is not the end-all for aviation. It has flaws. My robot vacuum is smart in that I can deploy it anywhere in my house with the touch of a button. Yet if I ever-so-slightly move a chair, its world is completely rocked.

Technology is useful in an airplane, from the GPS to your EFB. But that usefulness can only go so far. If you rely solely on technology, you will be very sad when it fails. Notice I did not say if. I said when. There is no shame in having a little redundancy in your airplane. Think of how lost everyone in the house feels when the power or internet goes out during a storm.

Technology has its flaws. You, however, have good pilot training and common sense. In an episode of The Office, the Michael Scott character drives into a lake because his GPS told him it was a road. Do not get so enamored with technology that you fail yourself when it fails.

When you obtain your driver’s license, you typically take a comprehensive checkride-like test once and you are a licensed driver forever. In aviation, we have an advantage in that FAA regulations require pilots to test their skills at least bi-annually. That requirement is not red tape; it is because a good pilot never stops learning.

Likewise, a good pilot is vigilant, never complacent. Treat your flying with the same high level of attention you would other aspects of your life. Flying is risky, but you can manage the risk. Never forget that, whether you have one hour of flight time or 1,000 hours.

For more information on risk management, see the FAA’s Risk Management Handbook.

When Leigh Ann Whittle was a child, she kept a notebook in which she wrote and illustrated narratives about space shuttle launches and visits to the local Richmond (Va.) International Airport by the World War II “warbirds.” She later earned her B.A. from the Elon University School of Communications before working in the motorsports and reinsurance industries. Leigh Ann holds an M.A. in English (East Carolina University) and an M.Ed. in Adult Education (North Carolina State University). She is also an FAA-certified Advanced Ground Instructor.
Leigh Ann has since returned to her aviation-writing roots as Elon Aviation’s marketing communications manager. She teaches online public speaking and business communication courses for two prominent Southeastern universities. She is also the conference proceedings editor for a communication-focused professional organization. Leigh Ann enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, hiking, and learning new things.
Learn more about the Elon Aviation staff at www.elonaviation.com.