Experienced Decisions

Aeronautical decision-making, or ADM, wasn’t a big, formal deal back in the prehistoric times when I was doing my primary flight training. It was present, nonetheless, in many hangar-flying sessions and private discussions with other, more-experienced pilots. “Don’t run out of gas” and “Don’t mess around with weather” were chief among their warnings and war stories. Those cautions remain as valid today as they were then, of course. While I’ve never run out of fuel, or even been forced to make a precautionary landing to top off, the same can’t be said of many other pilots. Conversely, I’ve often diverted well out of my way, delayed or cancelled trips thanks to weather I simply didn’t feel I could handle. As a result, it could be said I’ve made good decisions. But all that’s in the past—what about the next set of decisions you and I will make? Will they be good ones or bad ones? What goes into aeronautical decision-making and how can we improve it?

Key Takeaways:

• Aeronautical Decision-Making (ADM) is a critical, systematic mental process for pilots, particularly challenging in solo personal aviation due to human factors and a lack of collaborative resources, often resulting in safety incidents like poor fuel management or weather avoidance.
• While formal FAA ADM training models and acronyms exist, experienced pilots frequently rely on "naturalistic" or "automatic" decision-making, making quick, informed choices based on accumulated experience rather than rigid analytical frameworks, especially in urgent situations.
• To improve ADM for all pilots, it is crucial to consistently integrate FAA curricula into training and for experienced aviators to visibly model sound, safety-conscious decision-making, setting examples for less-experienced pilots.

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