kwmoore
05-04-2003, 11:08 PM
I have long felt that the most significant dangers GA pilots face in flying are related to their own judgment rather than how skilled they are at the mechanics of flying. I'm sure I'm not alone on this forum in having lost a few acquaintances in aircraft accidents, the circumstances of which sadly reinforced this feeling. In this light I have always been perplexed by the nearly complete lack of judgment-related instruction in both private pilot and instrument training. Why is the most frequent cause of accidents and fatalities completely ignored in training that is supposed to produce "safe pilots?" :confused:
Thus I was very interested when I learned of a new instructional video on exactly this subject from John and Martha King. This video course followed several interviews with the Kings in the aviation press in which they discussed risk/safety issues in GA and did their level best to dispel the popular delusion that flying is just as or nearly as safe as driving. I had used their private pilot and instrument pilot video courses in preparation for the written tests and found them effective and entertaining, so I took the plunge (a bit north of $50 with shipping).
Videotapes are so '80s, this course comes as a set of two CDs. PCs of all but Mesozoic vintage should have no trouble meeting the hardware and disk space requirements. Mac users like me are SOL, unfortunately, but Tina let me use her PC laptop. It's password-protected and I would guess you would have trouble sharing it with 50 of your closest friends.
The course consists of an introductory segment followed by four lesson modules. Each module in turn is organized as 4-6 subsections. Each subsection is a 1-2 minute instructional video followed by a "quiz" of 1-4 questions. The user must answer the questions correctly--multiple tries are allowed--before proceeding to the next subsection. The first three modules each cover a particular aspect of risk assessment: admitting the risks and making the commitment to manage them, planning a flight and go/no go decisions, and in-flight decision making. Several of the questions in each section describe scenarios and then ask the viewer to choose which risk-related factors are at work and recommend a course of action. Note that the "correct" answer may be a matter of debate and each scenario may have more than one prudent alternative. The fourth module brings it all together in a summary and emphasizes that risk-related decision making is the most important job of a pilot.
The introduction, like King's interviews, was fairly blunt at times. "When you've been in aviation for a long time like us, you get to know a lot of dead people," was one of the more pithy comments, doubtless intended to startle but also rather funny. I found the short instructional segments generally well-organized and effective at getting the intended points across to the viewer, and the flow between segments was logical. As with other King products, this one is mnemonic-intensive: "PAVE" for Pilot/Aircraft/enVironment/External pressure during preflight preparation and "CARE" for Consequences/Alternatives/Reality/External pressure for in-flight decisions. Note the dual emphasis on "external pressures"--the strong need of the pilot or passengers to reach the destination--which are (rightly IMHO) cited as a main contributor to poor decision making. There were also several memorable points, such as, "Experience is a hard teacher: it gives the test first, and the lesson comes afterwards." "When the risk is vague and indefinite but the benefits are specific and tangible, people do not do a good job of making decisions."
One or two of their example scenarios illustrate what I would call, for lack of the right words, "risk creep." One begins a flight with all information indicating it can be completed safely & routinely, and one's mindset is thusly calibrated. Hey, we are all goal-oriented people or we wouldn't be pilots. Then one begins to encounter unforecast conditions that are at first surprising but benign ("manageable") and only gradually deteriorate. The natural reaction is, "this wasn't supposed to be here, it will certainly get better in a few miles if I just scoot under/over/around it." The point is, the risk is unexpected and only presents itself in a way perceived by the pilot as small, individually "manageable" increments...until, seemingly all of a sudden, it isn't, and you're in the very situation that you were sure "would never happen to me." Knowing my own weaknesses to at least some degree, I understand that this is the kind of scenario that could ensnare me. I have to work constantly to "get outside myself" and objectively evaluate the situation. It has become easier with age and experience, but it is still an effort.
The Kings also make the important point that pilots are goal-oriented people with a background of achievement and perhaps less than average amount of patience. While these attributes serve well in one's business, they can contribute to some really goofy decision making in airplanes. This attitude of "find a way to get it done" has been a success mechanism in my personal and professional life, but it can be deadly in the air if one doesn't know when to turn it off.
The style of "Practical Risk Management" is vintage King, complete with their trademark at-times-a-little-over-the-top jocularity. I personally find this endearing, and the marketplace as a whole seems to like it too, although some pilots may not. If I had a criticism of the course, it would be that there are too few specific scenarios presented and discussed, both in the instructional and question sections. I found the example scenarios very useful and would have been happy to consider more. Perhaps this can be the subject of their next course, maybe entitled, "Stupid Pilot Tricks." Nonetheless for me it was $50 decidedly well spent, both thought-provoking and entertaining. More importantly, I feel it is a long-overdue first step in a very neglected area of pilot instruction.
Note that if you have your insurance thorugh Avemco, they will give you a 5% premium credit upon completion of the course. This will at least partially compensate for that 40% premium increase you likely got this year!
Thus I was very interested when I learned of a new instructional video on exactly this subject from John and Martha King. This video course followed several interviews with the Kings in the aviation press in which they discussed risk/safety issues in GA and did their level best to dispel the popular delusion that flying is just as or nearly as safe as driving. I had used their private pilot and instrument pilot video courses in preparation for the written tests and found them effective and entertaining, so I took the plunge (a bit north of $50 with shipping).
Videotapes are so '80s, this course comes as a set of two CDs. PCs of all but Mesozoic vintage should have no trouble meeting the hardware and disk space requirements. Mac users like me are SOL, unfortunately, but Tina let me use her PC laptop. It's password-protected and I would guess you would have trouble sharing it with 50 of your closest friends.
The course consists of an introductory segment followed by four lesson modules. Each module in turn is organized as 4-6 subsections. Each subsection is a 1-2 minute instructional video followed by a "quiz" of 1-4 questions. The user must answer the questions correctly--multiple tries are allowed--before proceeding to the next subsection. The first three modules each cover a particular aspect of risk assessment: admitting the risks and making the commitment to manage them, planning a flight and go/no go decisions, and in-flight decision making. Several of the questions in each section describe scenarios and then ask the viewer to choose which risk-related factors are at work and recommend a course of action. Note that the "correct" answer may be a matter of debate and each scenario may have more than one prudent alternative. The fourth module brings it all together in a summary and emphasizes that risk-related decision making is the most important job of a pilot.
The introduction, like King's interviews, was fairly blunt at times. "When you've been in aviation for a long time like us, you get to know a lot of dead people," was one of the more pithy comments, doubtless intended to startle but also rather funny. I found the short instructional segments generally well-organized and effective at getting the intended points across to the viewer, and the flow between segments was logical. As with other King products, this one is mnemonic-intensive: "PAVE" for Pilot/Aircraft/enVironment/External pressure during preflight preparation and "CARE" for Consequences/Alternatives/Reality/External pressure for in-flight decisions. Note the dual emphasis on "external pressures"--the strong need of the pilot or passengers to reach the destination--which are (rightly IMHO) cited as a main contributor to poor decision making. There were also several memorable points, such as, "Experience is a hard teacher: it gives the test first, and the lesson comes afterwards." "When the risk is vague and indefinite but the benefits are specific and tangible, people do not do a good job of making decisions."
One or two of their example scenarios illustrate what I would call, for lack of the right words, "risk creep." One begins a flight with all information indicating it can be completed safely & routinely, and one's mindset is thusly calibrated. Hey, we are all goal-oriented people or we wouldn't be pilots. Then one begins to encounter unforecast conditions that are at first surprising but benign ("manageable") and only gradually deteriorate. The natural reaction is, "this wasn't supposed to be here, it will certainly get better in a few miles if I just scoot under/over/around it." The point is, the risk is unexpected and only presents itself in a way perceived by the pilot as small, individually "manageable" increments...until, seemingly all of a sudden, it isn't, and you're in the very situation that you were sure "would never happen to me." Knowing my own weaknesses to at least some degree, I understand that this is the kind of scenario that could ensnare me. I have to work constantly to "get outside myself" and objectively evaluate the situation. It has become easier with age and experience, but it is still an effort.
The Kings also make the important point that pilots are goal-oriented people with a background of achievement and perhaps less than average amount of patience. While these attributes serve well in one's business, they can contribute to some really goofy decision making in airplanes. This attitude of "find a way to get it done" has been a success mechanism in my personal and professional life, but it can be deadly in the air if one doesn't know when to turn it off.
The style of "Practical Risk Management" is vintage King, complete with their trademark at-times-a-little-over-the-top jocularity. I personally find this endearing, and the marketplace as a whole seems to like it too, although some pilots may not. If I had a criticism of the course, it would be that there are too few specific scenarios presented and discussed, both in the instructional and question sections. I found the example scenarios very useful and would have been happy to consider more. Perhaps this can be the subject of their next course, maybe entitled, "Stupid Pilot Tricks." Nonetheless for me it was $50 decidedly well spent, both thought-provoking and entertaining. More importantly, I feel it is a long-overdue first step in a very neglected area of pilot instruction.
Note that if you have your insurance thorugh Avemco, they will give you a 5% premium credit upon completion of the course. This will at least partially compensate for that 40% premium increase you likely got this year!