I’ve long maintained that one of the most dangerous things in general aviation is two pilots trying to fly the same airplane at the same time. The problem is that, eventually, one pilot will come to think the other one is flying the plane while the second pilot knows they’re not flying it. The inevitable result is that no one is paying attention. This realization is one of the reasons commercial crews long ago adopted the pilot-flying/pilot-not-flying designations and mandated that one of the crew perform actions while the other verifies the action was correct and appropriate. But it frequently rears its head in less-formal situations when two pilots are at the controls, like advanced training.
According to a 2014 publication by AOPA’s Air Safety Institute, Accidents During Flight Instruction: A Review, “In both airplanes and helicopters, fatal accidents were more common during advanced instruction than in primary training, and happened more frequently during dual instruction than on solo flights by student pilots.” In fact, according to the publication, “More airplanes crashed during recurrent training and new-model transitions than in pursuit of additional ratings or certificates, but fatalities were most common during instrument training.” Why is advanced training riskier than the primary flavor? Is it because there are two pilots at the controls, or is it something else? If so, what? Regardless, what can we do about it?
