Dark on the Details

Call it the familiarity trap. When planning a new route or destination, you carefully examine the charts, procedures, airport diagrams, and approach minimums. But you tend to skip a lot of these steps on well-worn routes and at your home drome. Its near-certain that youll eventually discover how this complacency can be a big gotcha.

Editorial Staff

Saturday, November 11, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots often fall into a "familiarity trap," becoming complacent and skipping crucial pre-flight checks like reviewing approach notes, charts, and NOTAMs for familiar routes or home airports.
This complacency can lead to overlooking critical safety requirements, such as the need for an operational Visual Glideslope Indicator (VGSI) for night landings on specific runways due to unlit obstacles.
In the provided example, pilots unknowingly violated regulations by flying a night approach without the required VGSI, putting them at risk of striking hidden obstacles.
The article emphasizes that thorough review of all flight information, including fine print and NOTAMs, is vital for every flight to ensure safety and compliance, regardless of a pilot's familiarity with the route or airport.

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Call it the familiarity trap. When planning a new route or destination, you carefully examine the charts, procedures, airport diagrams, and approach minimums. But you tend to skip a lot of these steps on well-worn routes and at your home ‘drome. It’s near-certain that you’ll eventually discover how this complacency can be a big gotcha.

From your home base at Fulton County Airport in Wauseon, OH (KUSE), you in your SR20 and a buddy in his Cherokee Six plan to fly to Warren County in Lebanon (I68), where he’s dropping off his bird for an annual.