Nearly four of five pilot errors that result in aircraft incidents occur before a flight ever leaves ground, according to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System. Now, aviation researchers at Ohio State University hope to improve this record through a program under development that helps pilots make pre-flight decisions. The goal is to help pilots develop guidelines about whether they should fly in a particular instance, said Richard Jensen, an associate professor of aviation and director of the Aviation Psychology Lab at Ohio State.
Personal minimums are unique guidelines a pilot follows when making personal decisions about flying.
Some pilots may have as a personal minimum a resolve to fly only when they had at least eight hours of sleep the night before. Another example is a personal standard of flying only when the cloud ceiling is above a certain level. So we developed a new way of teaching pilots to think about how they manage the risks of flying. So pilots have to evaluate their level of ability and develop guidelines that are more stringent than what the FAA sets. During the program, pilots are asked to list any guidelines they follow when deciding whether to fly.