Aeronautical decision-making

Hazardous attitudes, IMSAFE, PAVE, DECIDE, and the operational pitfalls behind most accidents that are not mechanical.

16 min read · Human factors

After this lesson you can

  • Name the five hazardous attitudes and recite the antidote for each.
  • Run the IMSAFE and PAVE checklists correctly, with all their categories.
  • Apply the DECIDE model to a changing in-flight situation.
  • Recognize at least five of the operational pitfalls that precede accidents that have no mechanical cause.

Roughly 80 percent of aviation accidents trace back to human factors rather than mechanical failure, and the majority of those occur during landing (24.1 percent) and takeoff (23.4 percent) — the two phases where the least amount of time is available to recover from a bad decision. This chapter is less about facts to memorize than about scaffolding: structured checklists that force you to say out loud what would otherwise stay unspoken until it is too late.

Aeronautical decision-making, or ADM, is a systematic approach to the mental process pilots use to consistently choose the best course of action given the information available. Contrary to the old belief that judgment is simply a byproduct of experience, the FAA's own research shows ADM can be taught, and pilots who receive it make measurably fewer in-flight errors.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Hazard, risk, and the risk matrix
  2. 2.The five hazardous attitudes
  3. 3.IMSAFE: are you fit to fly
  4. 4.The 3P model: PAVE, CARE, TEAM
  5. 5.The DECIDE model
  6. 6.Operational pitfalls
  7. 7.Managing external pressure

These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the PPL track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.