Losing The Flick

The Flick,” the big picture, is how situational awareness often is described. As short descriptions go, it’s a good one. The big picture can mean different things to different people, of course, but it generally breaks down into knowing where you are, where you’re going, what it’s going to take to get there and whether the resources to complete the flight are available. The resources can be any number of things. In particular, they usually boil down to keeping tabs on fuel, weather and terrain. Lose the flick on either one of these three, and you could find yourself in these pages.

Key Takeaways:

• The fatal Cirrus SR20 accident was primarily caused by the non-instrument-rated pilots' loss of situational awareness during a dark night flight over remote terrain, leading to a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT).
• Key contributing factors included the pilots' fatigue from a long duty day and likely attempting to stretch fuel, resulting in a diversion without properly checking charts for terrain clearance.
• The incident underscores the critical importance of maintaining comprehensive situational awareness ("the flick"), which encompasses knowing fuel state, location, destination, and especially adequate altitude above terrain.

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