Welcome to the Safety Section of the Flying Clubs Newsletter, Club Connector!
Every month we provide resources for flying club safety officers to keep their clubs informed and safe. You can find this month’s safety article and the full archive, here: https://youcanfly.aopa.org/flying-clubs/flying-club-newsletter/safety
So, let’s get on with this month’s safety topic!
Background:
Most aviation safety issues are not caused by lack of skill or knowledge, but by how normal human limitations interact with real‑world pressures. Time constraints, expectations from others, high aircraft demand, and personal stress can quietly influence decisions long before the airplane moves. Understanding these influences helps us recognize risk earlier, manage it more effectively, and avoid small errors turning into larger problems. A strong safety culture is built when pilots consistently make conservative decisions, communicate openly, and support each other in choosing safety over convenience.
Learning points:
Human limitations are always present
Fatigue, stress, distraction, and bias affect every pilot on every flight. Safe operations assume these limitations exist and plan for them rather than hoping they will not matter.
Experience does not remove risk
Familiarity can quietly reduce vigilance. Past success should encourage continued questioning and discipline, not shortcuts or assumptions.
Pressure influences judgment early
Schedule demands, weather expectations, and personal commitments can change how risk feels before they affect flying skill. That shift is often subtle and easy to miss.
Commitment makes it harder to change course
Once time or effort has been invested, people naturally resist altering the plan. Recognizing that tendency early helps preserve safer alternatives.
Situational awareness includes the pilot’s condition
Awareness is not limited to weather, fuel, or aircraft status. Mental workload, stress level, and available focus are equally important inputs.
Minor issues are meaningful signals
Small discrepancies, vague discomfort, or incomplete information are rarely isolated events. Addressing them early prevents larger problems later.
Checklists support discipline under stress
They are designed to protect process when time is short or attention is divided. Skipping steps increases reliance on memory at the wrong moment.
Good decisions protect margins
Time, fuel, altitude, and mental capacity are safety buffers. Preserving them keeps options available and reduces the need for rushed choices.
Interruptions increase error risk
Any break in flow raises the chance that something is missed. A deliberate pause to reset helps restore orientation and focus.
Safety culture shows up in everyday choices
What is accepted and normalized, especially when things are busy or inconvenient, defines the real standard of safety.
Other Safety Resources:
Here is a reminder of just some of the safety resources available to all pilots:
FAASTeam:
The FAASTeam website is the portal to a vast array of courses, videos, links, and much more. Remember that WINGS not only encompasses knowledge activities but also flight activities. Use the search options to narrow down to say, flight activities for a basic phase of WINGS, and you’ll be able to find a syllabus and often a worksheet for various flight activities. Use WINGS to keep you proficient and think of the flight activities as a progressive flight review—earnt over 12-months, rather than at the end of 24-months.
Wait…you don’t do WINGS?
That’s a big shame—you are missing out on a free pilot proficiency program that will help you enjoy your flying even more, allow you to earn a flight review every 12 months just by flying, and may provide insurance discounts.
The FAASTeam WINGS pilot proficiency program is the best way for general aviation pilots to ensure they are competent, confident, and safe in their flight operations. Oh, and being perpetually proficient will save you money in the long run.
If you are interested in using the FAASTeam WINGS program for your personal flying or with your flying club, create an account on the FAASTeam website, http://www.faasafety.gov, and explore the collection of courses and flight activities. Also, feel free to contact me (Jason Levine, WINGS Representative), and I’d be pleased to walk you through the program. More on “WINGS for Clubs” can be found here in Flying Clubs Radio Episode 8 and the May 2020 Question of the Month.
Other FAA Resources:
Don’t forget to regularly revisit these FAA safety gems, as new material is frequently added:
AOPA Air Safety Institute:
https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute
AOPA’s Air Safety Institute (ASI), which by the way is funded by the AOPA Foundation just like the Flying Clubs Initiative, is packed with exceptional content, including exceptional videos, podcasts, accident analysis, online courses, recorded webinars and more. Completing ASI activities may also earn WINGS credits. Of particular interest to flying club safety officers is the updated Safety to Go section. There, you can download a selection of topics, each coming with PowerPoint slides and speaker’s notes!
