Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.")

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network.

Aero-Tips 08.19.06

We instructors generally do a great job of teaching the stick-and-rudder skills needed to safely fly an airplane. Our success is reflected in the accident record, which shows relatively few mishaps result from a basic inability to fly the airplane (assuming nothing on the airplane breaks or fails).

What the accident record shows about otherwise good-condition aircraft, however, is that we instructors generally are not doing as good a job of teaching pilots to make good decisions about flight—not showing students in primary, instrument and recurrent training how to manage the very real risks associated with flight. From students to ATPs we see judgment and risk management highlighted in post-crash investigations.

One Tool

The FAA posts on its website one tool designed to help instructors teach the process of risk management and decision-making. Tips for Teaching Practical Risk Management is a two-sided, printable flyer laid out to be tri-folded for easy use. The authors of the Tips brochure are seemingly obsessed with the letter "P" as a mnemonic device, breaking the brochure down by headings:

• Purpose
• Profile
• Practices and
• Postflight

The Purpose of the flyer is an introduction to "risk management tools [instructors] can use and teach to... flight training clients."  Profile defines "hazard" and "risk", and provides examples. The Practices section shows how scenarios may be used to teach risk management, and gives specific guidance -- using more "P"s in a Perceive-Process-Perform risk management technique—to improve decision-making. And it encourages a risk-evaluating Postflight briefing, to learn from every flight.

Aero-tip of the day: Whether you're a student or an instructor, take active steps to improve risk management and decision-making.

FMI: Aero-Tips