Normalization of Deviance Can Cause Problems for Pilots

Breaking the chain of accepting the unacceptable is imperative in flying.

Friday, October 04, 2024 at 09:10 AM ET

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The normalization of deviance was discussed often at the Spring to Proficiency 2024 IFR Clinic put on by Community Aviation at the EAA Pilot Proficiency Center in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. [Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

The "normalization of deviance" is a dangerous phenomenon in aviation where individuals gradually accept and adopt substandard practices and corner-cutting until they become the accepted norm, significantly increasing the risk of negative outcomes, including accidents.
Flight instructors (CFIs) are pivotal in preventing this cycle by consistently upholding high performance standards, thoroughly preparing learners, and refusing to enable poor habits, thereby breaking the "chain of deviance."
Current accelerated flight training models, which may emphasize minimal solo time and focus on "check ride to check ride" progression, risk producing underprepared pilots and future CFIs who perpetuate these substandard practices due to a lack of foundational skills and true solo experience.

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Have you ever cut a corner, perhaps not using a checklist, or skipping a preflight, and then caught yourself doing it again? Nothing bad happened the first time, but that was the beginning of the normalization of deviance.

The normalization of deviance is a phenomenon in which individuals deviate from what is known to be an acceptable performance standard—basically, accepting less than the acceptable in terms of performance or cutting corners—until the deviant behavior becomes the adopted practice. It’s often defended with phrases like “it wasn’t too bad” or “almost” or “close enough” or “we’ve never had a problem before,” and at the flight school level, “my CFI said I didn’t need to know that.”

Meg Godlewski

Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.