My esteemed colleague, John Sharp, described how intuition saved his life. It occurred while flying a helicopter across the desert at night. He was cruising at approximately 1000 feet AGL, but was not paying close attention to his altimeter. Just as he added power and started to climb, he noticed his altimeter and that his navigation lights were illuminating the ground. John reacted to his intuition and things worked out well that night.
Intuition is a subtle awareness that comes from deep within.
Next time it speaks to you, listen carefully and trust the force. It primarily uses experience and brainstorming to identify hazards, assess risk and develop risk controls. It is most effective when done in a group, so several subject matter experts conspired with me to examine the upcoming glider encampment at Pine Mountain, Georgia. Now, instead of having just a list of hazards, we had defined the level of risk for each hazard. For example, a frequent occurrence of a catastrophic injury is of greater concern than an occasional occurrence of a negligible injury.