Situational Awareness
I have always emphasized situational awareness without using the term. Prior to every training flight I review the flight plan and the reasons for certain procedures, altitudes, and performance parameters. You must know where you are in the operational environment and where others say they are. This reduces your risk but does not eliminate it.

The pilot who is actively participating in securing his situational awareness is spotting potential trouble before it occurs. The people in the front seats should be involved totally with flying. We must separate the flying from being a tour guide. Flying is made up of practice and discipline, and requires practice a discipline to keep flying the airplane as #1. A side conversation will make you less aware of the flight situation. Complacency, lack of attentiveness, and distraction is a prelude to an accident.

If you are pleased with your flying, situation, and competency, you are most likely complacent. Fly as though you were in trouble, worried, watched, and tested on every flight. Look for things that are close to right without being right. Don't accept 'close' if perfection will increase your alertness. Use of the checklist to perform critical tasks reduces the natural tendency to become inattentive. A little discomfort can be considered a positive influence, especially when flying alone. Hand-flying will keep you awake.

The more aware you are, the better your cockpit management, the better will be your defensive flying performance. More importantly, when your performance is up to standard you can detect the elements of the pre-accident sequence. The accident sequence begins on the ground, in most cases. The presence of risk may not be as apparent but it is on the ground where risk reduction begins. There are a number of personal stress factors, which dominate here.

The risk of an accident or an emergency begins very slowly and progresses cumulatively to ever increasing levels in a very orderly sequence. The pilot's ability to recognize and interrupt the sequence determines his ability to make an early on plan change to break the risk sequence. Stress interferes with the reasoning process. As the sequence develops the pilot get in over his head without realizing it. He has failed to allow any options as they occurred in the sequence. The unanswered multitude of questions surrounding every flight decision you make determines your proclivity for emergencies. In most accidents there is a sequence of events where the pilot should realize that continuance would push the capability envelope. This sequence most often begins with getting into the airplane.

Situational awareness means that the pilot is knowledgeable of the risks inherent in a given flight condition? Why is it more desirable to initially climb at best rate rather than cruise? When should a pilot opt to fly close to rising terrain? To what extent should a pilot trust a tower or radar controller? What options does the pilot have? What changes in flight procedures are desirable under SVFR or at night? The pilots knowledge and awareness of the real risks sets the threshold of tension onset and thereby the decision making process. Even smart people make dumb mistakes. Anyone can get lost; it takes an expert to stay found.

It's Called Imagination
---Yes, but it's really situational awareness.
---Situational awareness is more than just knowing where you are.
--- Situational awareness means knowing where everything and everyone else is.
--- Situational awareness means knowing where everything fixed and moving will be relative to you.
---ATC is playing this ‘game' with all aircraft on the frequency and you must play it as well.
---This three-dimensional chess requires imagination, anticipation, attention and caution.
---Caution is displayed by your letting ATC know when your situational awareness screen goes blank.
---You can do this in two ways over the radio:
---Ask ATC to point out unknown traffic by position and altitude
---Talk ‘beyond' ATC by giving position and altitude in hopes the unknown traffic get the message.
---You can practice situational awareness by reflecting on what has happened in a past situation.
---Reflection involves thinking how something may have been done differently or better.
---Practice reflection by visualizing an airport or pattern situation that happened and how to make it safer.
---Some visualize better than others do but imagination will give flashes of insight of what to do next time.

Cockpit Management
For the past twenty years there has been slow but steady improvement in the safety of flying. Some of these improvements have been in technology but the greatest change has been in reducing pilot caused accidents. The pilot must establish for himself personal minimums. He must live by them even though they may be well above FAR, published, or POH figures. Higher personal minimums will give more options and reduce anxiety of your flying. Never second-guess your personal minimums.

Advise a second pilot or passenger of all the above information on a 'nice to know' basis rather than on a 'need to know' basis. The better informed others are the better they can monitor your behavior and performance. Your companions are a resource of information to be used. An informed resource is the most useful.

Accident Prevention
You are not likely to have a minor accident with an airplane. Any repair is apt to be very expensive. The FAR's make the pilot the ultimate responsible party. ATC instructions are 'clearances' which leave the pilot responsible. Every flight is composed of numerous choices and decisions. Flight safety is based on the pilot's discrimination in selecting these choices and decisions. The pilot who is in the most need for accident prevention training is often the least likely to seek it. The once a week pilot often falls victim to accidents in which proficiency has been allowed to deteriorate to dangerous levels. 47% of the 80s-decade accidents were the result of incorrect judgments and decisions. Safety must be the paramount choice in making hard decisions. When in doubt make the safe choice.

If what you do in an emergency as a pre-planned procedure you have made the big step to avoiding the panic that kills people. Knowing what to do should not promote a feeling of invulnerability. We must have respect for the 'possibles" that occur in flying. We plan every flight for the best safety. When something goes wrong we must know decisively where to start and how to proceed. Indecision is often worse than doing nothing. As with everything in life, we can make a difference. Aviation safety investigations have shown that accidents are due to a lack of basic knowledge and flying skills, a complacency that whatever happens won't happen to you, and entering into a flight environment that contains flight hazards. Alone or in combination these await all of us given sufficient time. Again, remember your life's ambition is to be an old pilot.

All to frequently accidents are the result of a pilot's failure to know what he is responsible for knowing about his aircraft, its performance and systems. Just having a great deal of time is type is no assurance of adequate knowledge. POH knowledge should be reinforced by periodic refresher study. The first item on any FAA investigation is as to whether the pilot knows all he should know per FAR 91.103. You should be able to pass a blindfold cockpit instrument, controls and systems check. You should know the specifics for both normal and emergency operations.

Memory is the primary accident culprit. We forget or ignore those skills and cautions we had as students. We develop a false sense of competence. Memory is the source of common sense and good judgment. You remember what you have learned and have been taught about the flying factors that will keep you alive and free from accidents. Additionally, you must be constantly immersed in the literature of aviation in order to remain aware of the many changes that are part of the continuum of being a competent pilot.

Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems
 TCAS uses transponder equipped aircraft to display a plan view of aircraft position and collision threat. It does this by predicting flight path. Latest types tell pilot which way to go for avoidance. There have been a few false warnings.

Proximity Warning Indicator (PWI)
 Uses strobe light indications to display indicator lights as to give azimuth out to a range of one mile. These lights are found on TV towers.

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