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.