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4. Integrate risk management into planning at all levels. Because risk is an unavoidable part of
every flight, safety requires the use of appropriate and effective risk management not just in
the preflight planning stage, but in all stages of the flight.
While poor decision-making in everyday life does not always lead to tragedy, the margin for error in
aviation is thin. Since ADM enhances management of an aeronautical environment, all pilots should
become familiar with and employ ADM.
Crew Resource Management (CRM) and Single-Pilot Resource Management
While CRM focuses on pilots operating in crew environments, many of the concepts apply to single-
pilot operations. Many CRM principles have been successfully applied to single-pilot aircraft and led to
the development of Single-Pilot Resource Management (SRM). SRM is defined as the art and science of
managing all the resources available to a single pilot (prior to and during flight) to ensure the
successful outcome of the flight. SRM includes the concepts of ADM, risk management (RM), task
management (TM), automation management (AM), controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) awareness, and
situational awareness (SA). SRM training helps the pilot maintain situational awareness by managing
the automation and associated aircraft control and navigation tasks. This enables the pilot to
accurately assess and manage risk and make accurate and timely decisions.
SRM is all about helping pilots learn how to gather information, analyze it, and make decisions.
Hazard and Risk
Two defining elements of ADM are hazard and risk. Hazard is a real or perceived condition, event, or
circumstance that a pilot encounters. When faced with a hazard, the pilot makes an assessment of that
hazard based upon various factors. The pilot assigns a value to the potential impact of the hazard,
which qualifies the pilot’s assessment of the hazard—risk.
Therefore, risk is an assessment of the single or cumulative hazard facing a pilot; however, different
pilots see hazards differently.
Hazardous Attitudes and Antidotes
Being fit to fly depends on more than just a pilot’s physical condition and recent experience. For
example, attitude affects the quality of decisions. Attitude is a motivational predisposition to
respond to people, situations, or events in a given manner. Studies have identified five hazardous
attitudes that can interfere with the ability to make sound decisions and exercise authority properly:
anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, macho, and resignation. [Figure 10-2]
Hazardous attitudes contribute to poor pilot judgment but can be effectively counteracted by
redirecting the hazardous attitude so that correct action can be taken. Recognition of hazardous
thoughts is the first step toward neutralizing them. After recognizing a thought as hazardous, the
pilot should label it as hazardous, then state the corresponding antidote. Antidotes should be
memorized for each of the hazardous attitudes so they automatically come to mind when needed.
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Figure 10-2. The five hazardous attitudes identified through past and contemporary study.
Risk
During each flight, the single pilot makes many decisions under hazardous conditions. To fly safely,
the pilot needs to assess the degree of risk and determine the best course of action to mitigate the
risk.
Assessing Risk
For the single pilot, assessing risk is not as simple as it sounds. For example, the pilot acts as his or
her own quality control in making decisions. If a fatigued pilot who has flown 16 hours is asked if
he or she is too tired to continue flying, the answer may be “no.” Most pilots are goal oriented
and when asked to accept a flight, there is a tendency to deny personal limitations while adding
weight to issues not germane to the mission. For example, pilots of helicopter emergency
services (EMS) have been known (more than other groups) to make flight decisions that add
significant weight to the patient’s welfare. These pilots add weight to intangible factors (the
patient in this case) and fail to appropriately quantify actual hazards, such as fatigue or weather,
when making flight decisions. The single pilot who has no other crew member for consultation
must wrestle with the intangible factors that draw one into a hazardous position. Therefore, he
or she has a greater vulnerability than a full crew.
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Mitigating Risk
Risk assessment is only part of the equation.
One of the best ways single pilots can mitigate risk is to use the IMSAFE checklist to determine
physical and mental readiness for flying:
1. Illness—Am I sick? Illness is an obvious pilot risk.
2. Medication—Am I taking any medicines that might affect my judgment or make me drowsy?
3. Stress—Am I under psychological pressure from the job? Do I have money, health, or family
problems? Stress causes concentration and performance problems. While the regulations list
medical conditions that require grounding, stress is not among them. The pilot should
consider the effects of stress on performance.
4. Alcohol—Have I been drinking within 8 hours? Within 24 hours? As little as one ounce of
liquor, one bottle of beer, or four ounces of wine can impair flying skills. Alcohol also renders
a pilot more susceptible to disorientation and hypoxia.
5. Fatigue—Am I tired and not adequately rested? Fatigue continues to be one of the most
insidious hazards to flight safety, as it may not be apparent to a pilot until serious errors are
made.
6. Emotion—Am I emotionally upset?
The PAVE Checklist
Another way to mitigate risk is to perceive hazards. By incorporating the PAVE checklist into
preflight planning, the pilot divides the risks of flight into four categories: Pilot-in-command (PIC),
Aircraft, enVironment, and External pressures (PAVE) which form part of a pilot’s decision-making
process.
With the PAVE checklist, pilots have a simple way to remember each category to examine for risk
prior to each flight.
Once a pilot identifies the risks of a flight, he or she needs to decide whether the risk, or
combination of risks, can be managed safely and successfully. If not, make the decision to cancel the
flight. If the pilot decides to continue with the flight, he or she should develop strategies to mitigate
the risks. One way a pilot can control the risks is to set personal minimums for items in each risk
category. These are limits unique to that individual pilot’s current level of experience and
proficiency.
P = Pilot-in-Command (PIC)
The pilot is one of the risk factors in a flight. The pilot must ask, “Am I ready for this flight?” in
terms of experience, recency, currency, physical, and emotional condition. The IMSAFE checklist
provides the answers.
A = Aircraft
What limitations will the aircraft impose upon the trip? Ask the following questions:
• Is this the right aircraft for the flight?
• Am I familiar with and current in this aircraft?
• Can this aircraft carry the planned load?
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V = EnVironment
Weather
Weather is a major environmental consideration. Earlier it was suggested pilots set their own
personal minimums, especially when it comes to weather. As pilots evaluate the weather for a
particular flight, they should consider the following:
• What is the current ceiling and visibility?
• Consider the possibility that the weather may be different than forecast.
• Are there any thunderstorms present or forecast?
• If there are clouds, is there any icing, current or forecast? What is the temperature/dew point
spread and the current temperature at altitude?
Terrain
Evaluation of terrain is another important component of analyzing the flight environment.
Airspace
Check the airspace and any temporary flight restriction (TFRs).
E = External Pressures
External pressures are influences external to the flight that create a sense of pressure to
complete a flight—often at the expense of safety. Factors that can be external pressures include
the following:
• The desire to demonstrate pilot qualifications
• The desire to impress someone (Probably the two most dangerous words in aviation are
“Watch this!”)
• The pilot’s general goal-completion orientation
• Emotional pressure associated with acknowledging that skill and experience levels may be
lower than a pilot would like them to be. Pride can be a powerful external factor!
Managing External Pressures
Management of external pressure is the single most important key to risk management because
it is the one risk factor category that can cause a pilot to ignore all the other risk factors.
The use of personal standard operating procedures (SOPs) is one way to manage external
pressures. The goal is to supply a release for the external pressures of a flight.
Human Factors
Why are human conditions, such as fatigue, complacency and stress, so important in aviation? These
conditions, along with many others, are called human factors. Human factors directly cause or
contribute to many aviation accidents and have been documented as a primary contributor to more
than 70 percent of aircraft accidents.
Typically, human factor incidents/accidents are associated with flight operations but recently have also
become a major concern in aviation maintenance and air traffic management as well. Over the past
several years, the FAA has made the study and research of human factors a top priority by working
closely with engineers, pilots, mechanics, and ATC to apply the latest knowledge about human factors
in an effort to help operators and maintainers improve safety and efficiency in their daily operations.
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Human factors science, or human factors technologies, is a multidisciplinary field incorporating
contributions from psychology, engineering, industrial design, statistics, operations research, and
anthropometry. It is a term that covers the science of understanding the properties of human
capability, the application of this understanding to the design, development and deployment of
systems and services, and the art of ensuring successful application of human factor principles into all
aspects of aviation to include pilots, ATC, and aviation maintenance. Human factors is often considered
synonymous with CRM or maintenance resource management (MRM) but is really much broader in
both its knowledge base and scope. Human factors involves gathering research specific to certain
situations (i.e., flight, maintenance, stress levels, knowledge) about human abilities, limitations, and
other characteristics and applying it to tool design, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and environments
to produce safe, comfortable, and effective human use. The entire aviation community benefits greatly
from human factors research and development as it helps better understand how humans can most
safely and efficiently perform their jobs and improve the tools and systems in which they interact.
The Decision-Making Process
An understanding of the decision-making process provides the pilot with a foundation for developing
ADM and SRM skills. While some situations, such as engine failure, require an immediate pilot
response using established procedures, there is usually time during a flight to analyze any changes that
occur, gather information, and assess risks before reaching a decision.
Risk management and risk intervention is much more than the simple definitions of the terms might
suggest. Risk management and risk intervention are decision-making processes designed to
systematically identify hazards, assess the degree of risk, and determine the best course of action.
These processes involve the identification of hazards, followed by assessments of the risks, analysis of
the controls, making control decisions, using the controls, and monitoring the results.
The steps leading to this decision constitute a decision-making process. Three models of a structured
framework for problem-solving and decision-making are the 5P, the 3P using PAVE, CARE and TEAM,
and the DECIDE models. They provide assistance in organizing the decision process. All these models
have been identified as helpful to the single pilot in organizing critical decisions.
Single-Pilot Resource Management (SRM)
Single-Pilot Resource Management (SRM) is about how to gather information, analyze it, and make
decisions. Learning how to identify problems, analyze the information, and make informed and
timely decisions is not as straightforward as the training involved in learning specific maneuvers.
Learning how to judge a situation and “how to think” in the endless variety of situations
encountered while flying out in the “real world” is more difficult.
There is no one right answer in ADM, rather each pilot is expected to analyze each situation in light
of experience level, personal minimums, and current physical and mental readiness level, and make
his or her own decision.
Perceive, Process, Perform (3P) Model
The Perceive, Process, Perform (3P) model for ADM offers a simple, practical, and systematic
approach that can be used during all phases of flight. To use it, the pilot will:
• Perceive the given set of circumstances for a flight
• Process by evaluating their impact on flight safety
• Perform by implementing the best course of action
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Use the Perceive, Process, Perform, and Evaluate method as a continuous model for every
aeronautical decision that you make. Although human beings will inevitably make mistakes,
anything that you can do to recognize and minimize potential threats to your safety will make you a
better pilot.
Depending upon the nature of the activity and the time available, risk management processing can
take place in any of three timeframes. [Figure 10-3] Most flight training activities take place in the
“time-critical” timeframe for risk management. The six steps of risk management can be combined
into an easy-to-remember 3P model for practical risk management: Perceive, Process, Perform with
the PAVE, CARE and TEAM checklists. Pilots can help perceive hazards by using the PAVE checklist
of: Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, and External pressures. They can process hazards by using the CARE
checklist of: Consequences, Alternatives, Reality, External factors. Finally, pilots can perform risk
management by using the TEAM choice list of: Transfer, Eliminate, Accept, or Mitigate.
Figure 10-3. Risk management processing can take place in any of three timeframes.
PAVE Checklist: Identify Hazards and Personal Minimums
In the first step, the goal is to develop situational awareness by perceiving hazards, which are
present events, objects, or circumstances that could contribute to an undesired future event. In
this step, the pilot will systematically identify and list hazards associated with all aspects of the
flight: Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, and External pressures, which makes up the PAVE checklist.
[Figure 10-4] All four elements combine and interact to create a unique situation for any flight.
Pay special attention to the pilot-aircraft combination, and consider whether the combined
“pilot-aircraft team” is capable of the mission you want to fly. For example, you may be a very
experienced and proficient pilot, but your weather flying ability is still limited if you are flying an
unfamiliar aircraft. On the other hand, you may have a new technically advanced aircraft that you
have flown for a considerable amount of time.
Figure 10-4. A real-world example of how the 3P model guides decisions on a cross-country trip using the PAVE checklist.
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Decision-Making in a Dynamic Environment
A solid approach to decision-making is through the use of analytical models, such as the 5 Ps, 3P, and
DECIDE. Good decisions result when pilots gather all available information, review it, analyze the
options, rate the options, select a course of action, and evaluate that course of action for correctness.
In some situations, there is not always time to make decisions based on analytical decision-making
skills. A good example is a quarterback whose actions are based upon a highly fluid and changing
situation. He intends to execute a plan, but new circumstances dictate decision-making on the fly. This
type of decision-making is called automatic decision-making or naturalized decision-making.
[Figure 10-5B]