ProCockpit.com
Title
Pilot Manual Builder - Flight Safety for General Aviation
Description
At any given time (in the cockpit, or in life) we are only getting pieces of a puzzle. Say the engine is running rough. We can't see inside the engine. We don't know if something catastrophic is about to happen. We gather information, and we process this information. Our brain uses all our knowledge and previous experience to make sense of this information. Hmm, check the gauges; they're all normal. Slight RPM drop. Fuel gauges normal. Check carb heat; no, that's not it. Fuel contamination? Maybe. This could be bad. Check for some place to put down, just in case. Oh, wait, I forgot to readjust the mixture. Everything is fine; we're OK.
How safe do you feel flying? Here's an even more important question: is that feeling an accurate representation of how safe you really are? If you're the greatest pilot who ever lived, with logbooks full of experience and an uncanny ability to predict the future, then yes, that level of safety you feel probable IS accurate. If you're like the rest of us, mere mortals, then there will be times when you're scared (when you shouldn't be) and times when you're "fat, dumb, and happy" (and you definitely shouldn't be.) This means you must depend on something more reliable to determine whether you're "safe."
This could quite possibly be the most important factor in flight safety. Because how safe we feel dictates everything we do, both inside the cockpit and out. It dictates how much time we study a particular area of flight, or how much effort we put into a preflight, or how many seminars we attend. Did you ever have an examiner about whom everybody said, "The one thing he wants to see the most is the preflight inspection," or "proper radio phraseology," or "stalls?" Examiners, like all pilots, feel more concerned about some areas than they do about others. These different concerns are based on that person's genetics and life experiences. Can you think of a pilot whom you've heard say, "I would never do that...", when that same pilot will go out and do something you consider even more foolish or dangerous?
