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," leading them to skip reviewing critical details like approach notes and obstacle information for well-known routes and airports.
An illustrative night IFR flight highlighted this danger when pilots overlooked the mandatory "operational VGSI required" note for a runway due to unlit obstacles, causing one to bust regulations and the other to create new risks by canceling IFR.
The incident underscores the critical importance of always thoroughly reviewing all approach information, including notes, takeoff minimums, and NOTAMs, to avoid overlooked hazards and maintain safety.

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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.