Elements of Decision Making
Every situation offers several options. A better decision begins by asking yourself better questions. The better decision will not likely be perfect but a good question to yourself will keep it from being bad. Experienced pilots are able to give 'war-story' examples of how a decision worked or didn't work. Human retention is selective, proportional to use, presumed importance, and drama of implant. Pilots who do not fly often lose flight skills significantly and rapidly.

Inappropriate weather decisions are responsible for 80% of General Aviation Accidents. The culprits are pilots who steam ahead into marginal weather or into unfamiliar terrain without navigational capability. Only the Pilot in Command is responsible. Only the FAA has the power to second-guess all the decisions made en route to the accident. There is an endless series of decisions made as part of every flight. The PIC decision is final and responsible. The making of a decision is more a matter of self-discipline in the willingness to make safety the overriding factor not in just the last decision but in every decision leading up to the land decision. This requires courage on the part of the pilot to override all the pressures, desires, and needs that fly in the face of the safe decision. Only good judgment is more important than flying skill. Accident records are full of pilots who flew with a preconception of invulnerability.

Your Flying Decisions Are a Reflection of Your Other Lives
Every person and pilot has a number of innate sensitivities that influence every decision made. We do not like taking a loss of any degree or kind. When faced with a loss of our own making but beyond our control we avoid accountability and any other act causing remorse. When a situation derives from overconfidence that can be considered a ‘mistake' our reaction is to find some way to transfer responsibility for the potential negative outcome. We like our ideas, original or otherwise. We will devise arguments to support our view. Our faith in a virtual reality will not let facts affect what we believe should be. In any event we will twist and turn what we do and what we say to find the easy way to a solution that justifies our take on what is happening and going to happen.

Though this may sound very much a political rehash of the Iraqi Freedom campaign, it is very much the baggage all of us carry into any risk taking situation. Remember flying consists of a an ongoing series of risk taking events but so does getting out of bed. The foregoing paragraph could easily be written into most any flight situation. Below I have written it into a pre-solo student's difficulty in getting through the solo.

Training in Decision Making
--Developing a self-awareness of your attitudes which lead to the making the safe decision. "Will I look back from the future will I be satisfied I did my best?"
"Am I deceiving to myself?"
"Is a fantasy making things seem worse/better than they really are?"

--Learning to recognize, reduce, and control personal stress by knowing the causes and developing flight control accordingly.
"Is this choice what I really want and need to do?"
"What would I do if I weren't under stress?"

--Developing the knowledge, skill and experience required to make a considered flying risk assessment.
"What are the unanticipated consequences?"
"Do I have an option?"

--Using cockpit resource management to utilize checklists, manuals and systems to the best advantage.
"Do I know all my options?"

--Using others in and out of the cockpit as sources to make flying safer and more efficient.
"What would Lindbergh done in the same situation?"
"What would my best flying public think?"

--Replacing errors of omission that are doing nothing, with actions likely to mitigate the problem.
"What would my present worst enemy say?'
"What will the after effect be?"

--Avoiding errors of commission caused by doing something without anticipation of the effects.
"Does it feel "right' to do this?"
"What will immediate results be?"
"What will the delayed effects be?"

-- Avoiding mistakes of degree caused by reaction excess.
"Am I getting beyond my skill level of performance?"
"How am I going to feel afterwards?"

Even not doing anything is a decision. Over half of all accidents are the result of decisions that were not the best option. The more direct experience the pilot has had the better able he is able to select the best option. Experience lets the pilot compare the present with the past and make a decision accordingly. Most in flight emergencies can be avoided by decisions made before the flight. Training that limits its emergency procedures to major problems is quite likely to increase the probability of small problem errors.

Cockpit Resource Management
Having two pilots do not make flying safer unless the two have a team arrangement in which the duties and responsibility of the flight are shared and allocated prior to takeoff. As a team the pilots will work together and reinforce the required operational components.

One pilot should fly while the other works the radios. One pilot reads the checklist while the other performs. The not-flying pilot calls out altitudes while the flying pilot performs. On the missed procedure one flies while the other leans up the plane while calling out the essentials of the missed procedure.

Stages of Decision Making:
--Recognition that a decision is required
--Consider your options; evaluate the options
--Select which of the available options to use
--Decide if results are acceptable
--Willingness to make a new choice.

Decision-Making Related to Accidents
1. Desire to 'get it over' results in tunnel vision.
2. Desire to 'get away with it' by leaving the scene.
3. Instructional technique to give student picture of accident with options:
a. How to prevent the accident
b. Think outside the 'box to find choices
c. When in doubt make the safe choice. 
4. Any 180-degree turn MUST be to a landing.
5. Reference 60-20
6. Always keep an out of at least two optionsl.
7. When there is only one option, it is not an option.
8. Poor aeronautical decision making (ADM) causes over half of all accidents.

List for Avoiding Wrong Choices
--We know about weather, flight route, aircraft and pilot.
--We don't know what we don't know. Guessing is not a good option.
--The what-ifs mix of the known and the unknown create uncertainty.
--Your options are alternatives for all the what-ifs.
--Alternatives create immediate results and after effects for each action.

The Situation
Every situation requiring a decision is dynamic, it is changing for better or worse.
--Some situations are so undefined what the best solution or option is not delectable. Creative solutions are open to selection.
--Survival depends on what pilots do and what they have with them.
--Some situations require quick decisions. The correct decision made too late is the wrong decision.
--Any situation that allows pressures other than safety to dominate will breed wrong decisions.
--Situations that allow multiple viewpoints in decision selection are more likely to give the best decision.
--85% of accident occur on or near landing fields.

War story:
Pilot had entire single engine fall off. Before rest of plane became uncontrollable he pointed it straight down. Center of gravity was not a problem, now. He retained control effectiveness sufficient to level off and survive a crash at ground level. Mistakes in selection of options in emergencies have traumatic results. Away from airports survival is best with rescue in side of 24 hours.

Viewing the Situation
--The situation needing a decision must be first recognized as a change.
--Once recognized the situation must be categorized using one or more of the six types immediately above and study options.
--Expertise plus situational awareness give a 'big picture' perception. Screen the essential from the non-essentials.
--From the possible choices an option must be taken and action taken and observed as to whether the desired result is attained.
--Once an action is taken, contingencies and next options are anticipated. The 'what if' option must always be available as you inventory again your choices.

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