Pilot Safety
Pilot Safety
Pilot Safety
You know that aviation skills, training, and knowledge are essential to being a safe pilot. You also know that strong judgment and decision-making are vital as well. But what you might not have known, is that we can actually measure your judgment, and then help you improve your judgment.
Don’t misunderstand, no one is saying that you are unsafe. After all, you are still here. However, if you believe that improvements in judgment can lead to better decisions and choices, then no matter how safe you are already, Pilot Judgment® can make you safer.
You Owe It To Yourself, Your Family, And Your Passengers
Knowing the strengths, and weaknesses, of your evaluative judgment is likely a subject that you had not considered before now. You may not have even realized that your judgment can be measured. However, your judgment can be measured, with accuracy and specificity, exposing any areas of weakness or inadequacy.
Commander Barry Hull created the Pilot Judgment® program to help pilots become safer, not by improving their flying skills, but by improving their judgment and decision-making. As a pilot, it is often not only your life at stake, but that of your family and friends. You deserve to give yourself, and those who depend on you, the best possible chance to make the best possible decisions, especially during those times when things go horribly wrong.
What If It Works?
Just consider that for a minute—What if it works? If Pilot Judgment® works (and yes, it does) even just a little bit, you would want to use it. You would want to be as safe as possible. If you were approaching two planes that appeared similar, but the mechanic told you “The plane on the left is a little bit safer than the plane on the right”, which plane would you choose? Chances are, you will want the additional margin of safety. So, if you believe it is possible, that the measurement and improvement of your evaluative judgment can make you safer, wouldn’t you want it?
Case Study — Ronald Sr. and Ron Jr.
(Names have been changed to protect confidentiality)
Problem: Son is a pilot, argues with father about flying.
Self-analysis Prior to Assessment: Son feels that father is holding him back; father feels son is not taking danger seriously.
Actual Assessment Results: Difference in systemic judgment causing conflict
Ronald Sr. and Ron Jr. are father and son, ages 25 and 53, live in the same city, and have a very close relationship. They speak often, almost daily, and share many of the same interests. Ron Jr. is a highly intelligent college graduate who is currently employed as a marketing executive for a large technology company. His father, an engineer in the defense industry, has always encouraged Ron to use caution with his choices in life, a source of occasional conflict between them, as Ron Jr. considers his father a wet blanket at times. Ron Jr. has always had an interest in flying, has had flight simulator games on his computer since he was old enough to use a mouse, and has read every flying magazine and followed every aviation blog he can find. He took flying lessons, which he enjoyed greatly, and passed his private pilot exam. Throughout the process, his father remained very supportive of his efforts, although Ron Jr. often felt his father was overly protective and worried at every conversation they had. Watch out for this … did you notice that … are you sure about those … what happens if … seemed to be all he wanted to talk about. Ron Jr. would want to regale his father with tales of what he saw and where he went, the thrill of flying, and he felt bogged down in every conversation with twenty things to worry about that may not even happen. It felt like a drag, and he felt frustrated because his father was not a pilot, how could he possibly know all the things he kept “warning” him about?
When his father suggested they both join Pilot Judgment®, Ron Jr. perked up, as he finally had the chance to show the old man that he knew his stuff and that flying was not an endless supply of worries and scares. Seeing the comparison of their scores in the Crew Report, was like a big bucket of cold water on Ron Jr. He realized that there were some things he should be worried about that he had not considered to this point.
Ronald Sr. scored impressively high in Understanding Strategies, Using Strategies, and Systemic Judgment, areas in which Ron Jr. conversely scored below average. Reading the details of those indicators showed Ron Jr. that these were the exact areas in which implications and consequences were evaluated, and where safety was most affected. Ron Jr. was highly competent in tasks, but rather impulsive, and did not take much time to consider the implications and consequences of his actions. As he pondered this, it worried him, and he decided for his own safety and that of his passengers, he needed to develop those areas of his judgment to a greater degree. As much as he cringed to admit it, Pilot Judgment® showed the old man was right. Ron Jr. took his conversations with his father far more seriously after that, and instead of eye-rolling and dismissing the cautions and considerations his father raised, he started trusting his father’s judgment and practiced using that judgment himself. As the time progressed, he learned to give more consideration to his actions, and became a far more competent, confident, and safer pilot.
