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The Importance of Strong Aeronautical Decision Making
Even if you don’t have a pilot certificate, you probably can guess from the name that Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) is the process by which pilots make decisions as they relate to flight. This begins with the pre-flight planning and aircraft inspection, continues all the way through the flight, and ends only when you have shut the airplane down and secured it. Anyone with a pilot certificate will tell you that this is a process you will need to know from when you first begin to train and, very likely, will need to speak to during a checkride at one point or another.
That’s the concept anyway. Officially, ADM is defined as the systematic approach to consistently determine the best decision in response to a given set of circumstances. That’s it.
Seriously, that’s it? But if that’s it, why is it so hard for pilots to practice good ADM and make sound decisions that lead to safe flight? Why do so many General Aviation accidents trace back to ADM that was insufficient? Could it be that ADM is so much more than just a “process?” Could it be a set of values that we hold, as pilots, that perhaps conflict with other values? Could it be something that pilots become so accustomed to, that it becomes an afterthought? Is it something that we need to actively be aware of and ensure we’re refreshing from time to time?
Actually, I think it’s all of these things and quite possibly more. Let’s first discuss the flow of ADM and then we’ll explore a bit. In our exploration, we’ll focus more on how ADM relates to the pre-flight phase, as this is where everything begins, and where the tone is set for the rest of the flight.
The FAA calls the flow of ADM the 3P model or “Perceive, Process, Perform.”
*Perceive: Gathering of the information needed to make the decision…
*Process: Working through that information to identify the best course of action…
*Perform: Putting the decision into action.
This is basically the same process that is ingrained into all human beings, known as the Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA) loop. The 3P model might just be a fancy way of putting it…it is aviation after all. The idea is the same. We have to gather all of the available information when a decision needs to be made, process that information to identify a decision and course of action, and then we have to act on that decision. We utilize this process with every single decision, every single time, regardless of how we refer to the process.
It should go without saying that you can’t make sound decisions without complete information. And that’s where good ADM begins. Using ALL of the available information. Not just the information that makes the decision easy, and certainly not just the information that is favorable and supportive of a poor decision. All of the information. Let me say it louder for those in the back…ALL OF IT.
The information also needs to be from reliable sources. The NOAA Aviation Weather Center, Flight Service, your favorite Electronic Flight Bag, current charts and publications; your experience, proficiency, and personal minimums (remember those?); how the airplane presents itself during inspection, what you see, and how you feel (IMSAFE). This is not an exhaustive list, either. If you can identify a source of information as reliable and relevant, use it.
How about some examples that demonstrate what it means to use all of the available information and where some issues could present themselves:
*Your route could be perfect, the weather and forecasting could look great, but then you get an “off” feeling about the airplane during the pre-flight inspection or clearly see that something isn’t quite right.
*The weather looks good and the plane is excellent, but as you do a final review of your plan you’re not as comfortable with the route as you thought you were.
*The crosswind at your destination is a little outside your personal minimums.
*You haven’t flown this particular airplane, or any airplane, recently and your proficiency is lacking.
*You had an argument with your boss or your significant other a few hours prior, and now you are feeling stressed.
But why are pilots still crashing and still dying if ADM is as simple as collecting information, processing it, and deciding on it? I believe it comes down to the human factor. Despite the information available at hand, the decision still has to be made by a human being. A human being with plans, goals, and values or beliefs that may conflict with the best possible decision. Perhaps it is the stress in knowing that you won’t get to see that family member, make that client dinner, or impress that significant other if you don’t make this flight. Maybe it’s just Tombstone Courage, or the belief that we are invincible, until the world demonstrates to us rather harshly that we are not. Sometimes we have to make the tough or unpopular decision, the one we don’t want to make but know that we have to make for our safety, our passengers, and the people and places we’re flying over. We have to be honest with ourselves. Sometimes that’s the hardest part, the honesty in admitting there is a problem, and that we have to make a tough decision. Listening to that “gut feeling” that is telling us the flight today is not a good idea.
And about those pesky personal minimums. Are they up to date? When is the last time you made an honest assessment of your skills and updated your personal minimums? The thing about personal minimums is that they are not personal achievements. They do not, and should not, represent what we were willing and capable of taking on when we were at the pinnacle of our piloting skills. They need to represent what we are capable of now, and we need to be honest with ourselves. There’s that word again, honesty, seems like a recurring theme here.
Building strong ADM skills should start from the very beginning of our flying journey. It is incumbent upon Certificated Flight Instructors to build these skills in their budding aviators. But to have a really strong skillset, and put it into practice, we have to fully understand the concept. For the sake of your students, mirror strong ADM. Lead by example and make sure there is no ambiguity. Have the tough conversations with your students and demonstrate the tough decisions. Better yet, instill the ADM skills in your students so well, that they cancel the flights before you do, because they already know that flight would fall outside the acceptable risk envelope and fails strong ADM.
As a certificated pilot, how do we maintain and enhance these skills. We continue to avail ourselves of the best information and resources and continue to learn about new ways of interpreting the information. We can attend WINGS courses, safety seminars, and discussions with other aviators. We encourage and praise our fellow aviators when we see something being done right, and counsel one another when we see something being done unsafely. We establish personal minimums that are honest and are a true reflection of our skills and abilities now. Personal minimums that we know our skills and proficiency can support. We attest that we won’t be afraid to take ownership of a situation and make the tough decisions when they need to be made. We remember that it’s okay to ask for help from a fellow trusted aviator with reading a chart or a weather forecast. We take the good advice we receive and add it to our toolbox, for it may come in handy someday. And we make ADM such an active process that it never has a chance to get rusty, that it’s always a major factor in our flying.
Outside of the obvious catastrophic event that no one could plan for or anticipate, such an engine or airframe failure in flight, a bird strike, a medical issue, or some other completely random event; ADM done right from start to finish should equate to a safe flight. Or…GASP…a cancellation. But I have to get to that meeting, that dinner, see that family. We have to make this trip or my significant other will be mad at me.
Is it worth dying over? I think if we knew that would be the ultimate outcome, we would not make that choice. After all, we fly for the thrill of flight, not to make it our last day on Earth. If we knew this decision would lead to our demise, would we still make it? Why don’t we weigh the decision in that light? Maybe we get lucky and we make it to our destination. Maybe we don’t, and the FAA and the NTSB spend the next several months or years trying to figure out what we were thinking and how we ended up as a smoldering pile of airplane parts in a field or, worse yet, a neighborhood. A recent crash in Virginia comes to mind, a crash which likely would have never happened if the pilot had exercised better ADM, and not flown an airplane that was grounded for maintenance. We’ll never know what the pilot was thinking that day, but my gut says he wouldn’t have taken that airplane for that flight if he knew it was going to be his last, if he knew that crash was to be the ultimate outcome.
If we have to cancel, what options do we have? Could we fly commercially, since commercial aircraft are more capable than most General Aviation aircraft and there are contingency plans in place? Could we drive to our destination? What about flat out cancelling the trip, would that be the end of the world? What would be worse, sacrificing an appointment or sacrificing our life? For me it’s an easy choice, but it’s one you have to make for yourself, every time you fly. I know there has been more than one flight that I have cancelled for safety purposes, and while disappointed initially, was thrilled in short order when the No-Go call proved extremely fruitful. And I have made No-Go calls before too, and then realized it would have been a safe flight in the end. But ultimately, I am here to tell that story because I erred on the side of caution. It is always better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than to be in the air praying you were on the ground.
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading and for taking safety seriously. I want to leave you with a challenge. Throughout this post I mentioned honesty and personal minimums on a couple of occasions. I would like to implore you to take out your personal minimums and review them. Update them if they need it, being completely honest with yourself and your capabilities. And commit them to paper, as I think you’ll find it is easier to be honest with yourself when you write them down and actually look at them. Remember that you can always revise your personal minimums again, up or down as your experience and proficiency dictates. But make them a part of your decision-making toolkit and a contract with yourself to ensure you utilize strong ADM. If you need a guide on how to establish personal minimums, check out the files section, under resources, for an FAA produced worksheet. Even if you don’t make this your final copy, it will give you some critical things to think about.
Safety First,
Jeff
