Good Pilot Decision Making

Validating ADM, the AC cites a study where student pilots who received ADM training made 10-50 percent fewer judgment errors than untrained students. This is why the new Airman Certification Standards incorporate a risk management component into every task to promote learning and applying risk management during flight training. Yet learning ADM is challenging in part because much FAA documentation is, frankly, poorly organized and excessively wordy.

Fred Simonds

Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) is a structured, systematic approach promoted by the FAA to reduce pilot judgment errors through taught risk management and decision-making skills, validated by studies showing fewer errors in trained pilots.
The ADM framework utilizes the PAVE model to identify four major hazards of flight: Pilot, Aircraft, EnVironment, and External Pressures.
Pilots can apply two primary risk management models: the 3P model (Perceive, Process, Perform, which integrates PAVE, CARE, and TEAM) and the six-step DECIDE model (Detect, Estimate, Choose, Identify, Do, Evaluate).
These tools provide pilots with systematic frameworks to identify hazards, assess and mitigate risks, manage hazardous attitudes and stress, and make informed decisions to enhance flight safety.

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We all know most accidents are caused by pilot errors in judgment, reasoning, or skill. We learn through our mistakes. But, we can’t make (and survive) all possible mistakes ourselves. So, the FAA tries to teach us good judgment and reasoning.

In AC 60-22, Aeronautical Decision Making, the FAA claims that good judgment can be taught besides being learned from experience. Aeronautical Decision Making, ADM, builds upon conventional decision making to help decrease the likelihood of errors in the cockpit. It is a structured, systematic approach using risk-management tools called PAVE and DECIDE.