Managing Risk

Book excerpt: "This book is for every pilot who wants to avoid an aircraft accident. Whether you are a private pilot who flies a homebuilt aircraft on sunny weekends, an aspiring commercial pilot attending a collegiate aviation degree program, a first officer at your first job at an airline, or a seasoned pilot with thousands of hours under your belt, this book will help equip you with the information you need to successfully manage many of the major risks associated with flight. The title of this book captures its essence: it documents and describes most of the significant risks associated with flight and, more importantly, provides best-practice countermeasures that you as a pilot can use to avoid or mitigate them. It is divided into 10 chapters that cover ten major hazards gathered under four main accident categories: aircraft collisions (runway incursions, midair collisions), adverse weather (aircraft structural icing, VFR flight into IMC, low-level wind shear), physiological hazards (high-altitude flight, night flying, visual illusions, spatial disorientation), and the major threat of controlled flight into terrain. Using statistics, aviation safety studies, and actual aircraft accident examples, each chapter examines the nature of the threat itself, detailing the locations, times or phases of flight where the probability of encountering it is most pronounced. The human aspects that make pilots particularly vulnerable to that specific hazard are also carefully explained. Finally, drawing upon a wealth of expertise and experience, each chapter concludes with best-practice strategies that you as a pilot can use to manage the risk"--Provided by publisher.