\[ \]

How Safe is Safe?

Issue No 44, 18 September 2023

By: Anthony O. Ives

My knowledge of psychology is very limited and does not really extend beyond what I learned for the human performance pilot theory exams however, from my own experiences I have generally come across two attitudes to safety. One safety attitude is those nervous types like me who generally worry about everything and the other type who hopefully still do the safety checks but worry less about what could go wrong. No doubt the latter safety attitude can exist in the extreme case of not being worried about doing any safety checks but thankfully I never met anyone who is completely suicidal. If you are the type of person who likes extreme sports then you are probably going to be more relaxed about safety and just do your safety checks in an automatic way. In reality like most things there are probably advantages and disadvantages to both types of attitudes, like most things its important that you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages, then take steps to get the most out of your advantages and finds ways to compensate for the disadvantages.

This article is really a carry on from the previous article I did on fear of flying [1]. In that article I talked about how you can use you any fears you have of flying to make you a safer pilot. Being a nervous cautious type I find it lot easier to understand the attitude of being very safety conscious, applying the motto of 'fools rush in where wise men fear to tread'. In my original article [1] on fear I made the point that most activites we do every day involve some sort of risk and can even involve more risk than flying but we do not experience the same sort of anxiety or fear because we do them so often and hence are very familar with them. The point I was making was that most of our fears are disproportional to the actual risks except when you become more experienced doing a certain activity then the danger of complacency becomes a factor. It is a fact that low hour pilots generally have accidents due to inexperience but as flying hours accumalate to about 500 hours [2] of flying experience accidents are due to complacency hence 'familiarity breeds contempt'.

As your experience of flying increases even if you started out something like me terrified of your own shadow, with experience you become more confident and your attitude changes from a nervous worrier about safety to more a complacent attitude toward safety. Even dare-devils probably start out nervous until they get more experience it just they have shorter journey to reach ulimate confidence and complacency to safety. In the next paragraphs I am going to discuss what I think the advantages and disadvantages of both an anxious person and a totally confident person though hopefully they are fairly obivous. I am also going to suggest what you could do make yourself a safer pilot.

I am going to start with the anxious personality because I would consider myself more of anxious person and therefore think I understand that type of personality better. The advantages of being anxious and nervous is that you are aware of your vulnerability and probably aware of what can go wrong. Therefore that makes it easier for you to see the importance of your safety checks and also having a plan of action if things go wrong. You will also like to keep your activities well within abilities. So regards to safety this type of personality would arguably be the safest but the disadvantage of being anxious is that if something goes wrong that you have not planned for it is going to cause you more stress and you may be tempted to panic. The only way to control your negative side of being anxious is through experience and training, and always keeping your activites within your comfort zone. As I have built more hours flying I have become more confident but it is important to remember why your were intially nervous and maintain a good attitude towards safety.

As you gain more flying experience there is a danger you will become more complacent towards safety and end up at the other end of the spectrum as a totally confident person. Some people seem to be naturally more confident even when they are starting to learn to fly, to be honest I was very envious of people who did not seem to dread doing a cross-country solo like me. The advantages of being totally confident are you will be able to make calm collect decisions if an emergency situation develops that you had not planned for hence you will be more likely to handle it. The disadvantages are obvious like are the opposite to advantages of person who is naturally nervous, you are less likely to plan for an emergency situation because you believe you will be able to deal with them as they develop. Safety checks will also be something you will do automatically and you will likely observe the checks but not comprehend what the observation is telling you. The only way to make safety more important to you, is think like an anxious person they are nervous because they think about what can go wrong and how the impact of an accident would affect your life and possibly your flying activities. Aircraft accidents can result in higher insurance premiums, lost of your licence, it can also cause your family and friends to worry when you fly. All of these things could result in lost of flying privileges or make flying more difficult for you. Aircraft accidents can result in more controls, regulations and overall less freedom. The increase in popularity of drones, resulted unfortunately in people flying them recklessly and without due care. Therefore in most countries all remotely controlled aircraft over a certain weight are required to be registered with the aviation authority [3], this probably would have never been necessary if people had have flown them responsibly.

How do you feel about safety? Would you consider yourself an anxious person or a very confident person with regards to safety? What do you think are the problems in having a disregard for safety? Do you think if more people were more safety conscious there would be less need for controls, regulations, we would enjoy more freedom and less expensive flying costs?

Please leave a comment on my facebook page or via email and let me know if you found this blog article useful and if you would like to see more on this topic. Most of my blog articles are on:

Mathematics
Helicopters
Woodworking and Boatbuilding

If there is one or more of these topics that you are specifically interested in please also let me know in your comments this will help me to write blog articles that are more helpful.

References:

[1] http://www.eiteog.com/EiteogBLOG/No38EiteogBlogFear.html

[2] The Helicopter Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-21B, 2019, United States Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/helicopter_flying_handbook

[3] https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/

Disclaimer: Eiteog makes every effort to provide information which is as accurate as possible. Eiteog will not be responsible for any liability, loss or risk incurred as a result of the use and application of information on its website or in its products. None of the information on Eiteog's website or in its products supersedes any information contained in documents or procedures issued by relevant aviation authorities, manufacturers, flight schools or the operators of aircraft, UAVs.