Expectations

Expectations can force the eye to see what the mind wont parse. My lesson in this human frailty occurred when I was taking an end-state instrument student out into some real weather, which he had been pestering me do for weeks. The trip was a short one, from a central Connecticut airport, across Long Island Sound to Islip, then Westhampton Beach and back home again. A nice easy 90 minutes with four or five approaches. The weather was horrid, but perfect for IFR training. A late-winter warm front had moved in over the still snow-covered ground to produce uniform ceilings of 300 to 500 feet in a couple of miles of viz. Tops were widely reported at 3000 feet and since Id seen these exact conditions before, I knew what to expect. Link one: The lesson was a rushed after-work affair and I was pushing to get it done before full dark. I dont mind night IFR, but not in a Cherokee with no backup vacuum, thanks. We slammed together a briefing, filed a flight plan, got into the airplane and picked up a clearance while the engine warmed.

Key Takeaways:

• The article highlights how confirmation bias, driven by expectations and a rushed mindset, can lead pilots to dangerously misinterpret critical flight data and ignore warning signs.
• During an IFR training flight, an instructor and student inadvertently set their altimeter a full inch too high, then proceeded to overlook multiple cues (e.g., busted AWOS, rapid climb, controller queries) due to preconceived notions and a failure to double-check.
• This series of overlooked discrepancies resulted in them flying significantly lower than believed, narrowly avoiding an accident by sheer luck, underscoring that checklists alone may not overcome human cognitive biases.

Key takeaways sponsored by Aviator Pro | Start Your Training ->

See a mistake? Contact us.